Wanderers opened pre-season with a 2-1 victory away at Halifax Town on Saturday thanks to goals from Adam Le Fondre and Sammy Ameobi.
New signings Clayton Donaldson, Jason Lowe and Erhun Oztumer were all handed their first run-outs in a Whites shirt, while a number of Bolton's youngsters were also given chances to impress off the bench.
Speaking to bwfc.co.uk after the game, manager Phil Parkinson covered the following points...
On what he took away from today’s game…
It was a good exercise for us in a first game against opposition. The first sixty minutes were good and we scored two really good goals. The lads, particularly the ones, who were with us last year, have come back in really good shape.
You can see that from the first goal we scored which was a fantastic break from their set-play.
The second one is just as pleasing with Sammy switching the player and getting in behind the full-back to score a terrific header. It was a good work out on an excellent pitch.
On his squad all gaining some much-needed minutes…
It was important for us to play game. We made wholesale changes on 60 minutes and it was good for some of the youngsters to get a run-out.
Obviously when you make many changes it can disrupt the flow of the game but a lot of the youngsters have done well with us in pre-season.
I thought a couple of them perhaps tried a little too hard to impress today. They need to relax a little bit more when we have the ball but it was a good afternoon’s work for us and it takes us into another week of training.
On his new signings and future transfer business...
The lads have trained excellently. The lads we’ve brought in have fitted in really well and a few of the youngsters who have stepped up from the Under-23s have done well too.
There is a good feel about the group. We are looking for another seven players to add to the squad. Three of the lads we’ve brought in made their debuts today.
Jason is a good player, a good character to have in there and a very good talker. He’s the type of player you need in your team who can control people around him.
Clayton scored and although it was ruled offside, we’ve had a quick glance and it looked onside to me so we’re frustrated for him on that.
Ozzy has missed a couple of days’ training so we put him on towards the end and he showed some good touches.
Pawel did some work before the game. He needs work, he’s missed pre-season but he’s a fit lad and he’ll soon catch up.
And finally, on giving chances to the club's youngsters...
The youngsters did ok but I said to them at the end they were a little hurried on the ball.
The players we brought on have good quality in possession but we gave it away a little cheaply and gave Halifax a way back into the game.
We know it’s pre-season but we want to make sure we win the game and we managed to do that in the end.