Nat Lofthouse, a miner who became one of England's most powerful and prolific strikers, died on Saturday. He was 85.

Lofthouse, who amassed 30 goals in just 33 appearances for England and spent his entire club career playing for Bolton, died in his sleep at a nursing home in Bolton, the Premier League team said.

Lofthouse was memorably nicknamed "The Lion of Vienna" after being knocked unconscious as his scored his second goal to clinch a 3-2 victory at Austria in a match dubbed the unofficial championship of Europe.

Almost unprecedented at the top levels of the contemporary game, Lofthouse never left his boyhood club.

After his first-team debut for Bolton was delayed by World War II, he scored a club record 255 times in 452 league appearances between 1946 and 1960.

"Nat undoubtedly is a Bolton Wanderers legend," chairman Phil Gartside said on the Bolton website. "He was a one-club man and our football club meant as much to him as he did to us.

"We will miss him but we will celebrate his life, his legacy and great times that he brought to Bolton Wanderers."

Lofthouse's association with Bolton continued after his playing career was ended by a serious knee injury, occupying a variety of roles including chief coach, chief scout, caretaker manager and club president, in which he remained until his death.

Former England and Bolton defender Jimmy Armfield described Lofthouse in a 1995 BBC radio documentary as "the epitomy of the old-fashioned center forward _ strong, fast, fearless."

The players' union website says that Lofthouse "set the standard to which all strikers are compared."

Two of his goals helped Bolton win the 1958 FA Cup final with a victory over Manchester United _ and the second remains contentious to this day.

Playing against a United side still grieving following the Munich air disaster, Lofthouse barged goalkeeper Harry Gregg into the net to score.