On-loan midfielder hoping to flourish in central midfield trio with new team-mates
Liam Trotter hopes more playing time in the Bolton first team will help him build on some encouraging initial partnerships with his new team-mates.
The deadline-day recruit made his home debut for Wanderers in the weekend’s 2-2 draw with AFC Bournemouth at the Reebok Stadium.
Trotter was deployed at the point of an attack-minded midfield trio, linking up with Mark Davies and Jay Spearing well, particularly in the first half.
And now the Millwall loanee believes that with more game time he will be able to quickly strike up a positive rapport with his new Bolton colleagues.
“In terms of integrating with the other players, I felt that the game went well from my point of view,” Trotter told bwfc.co.uk after the game.
“Working in the midfield with two very good players in Jay Spearing and Mark Davies was enjoyable.
“I also feel like I linked up with Jukes (Lukas Jutkiewicz) when pushing forward.
“When you’re surrounded by these kinds of players it’s a lot easy to quickly fit in. Hopefully those partnerships can continue to develop with more games.”
Even with some positive football in the opening half, Trotter’s underlying emotion was one of frustration given the ultimate outcome of the game.
The visitors from the south coast would claw their way back from two goals down to earn a share of the spoils.
Trotter was very much of the belief that Lewis Grabban’s goal in the run up to half time, to take the game to 2-1, had a significant impact on the game.
Trotter added: “Overall, I think we can certainly take a lot of positives from the first 40 minutes of the game. The other positive was the fact that we didn’t lose the game.
“I thought we were deserving of the two-goal lead and that we played some good stuff.
“Their first goal then came out of nowhere and that was a bit of a sucker punch. Lewis Grabban has a shot from 25 yards and he puts it in the top corner.
“But that’s what it is like in this league - there are some very good players. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t allow teams those kinds of opportunities.
“That goal turned the tide of the game. You can’t help but think that it would have been a different game had we been able to hold out until half time.
“Even when we conceded the second we showed good character for a push late on. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a winner.”