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Chris O’Grady is determined to make the most of his unexpected spot in the limelight with Wanderers.
The experienced striker was facing an uncertain future after being frozen out by Oldham Athletic over the summer – told by the League Two club he was too old and too expensive to be a part of their plans.
But when old pals Keith Hill and David Flitcroft offered him a surprise shot at Bolton he saw a chance to achieve something special.
“They have always got the best out of me, whether I was a kid or someone at the stage of my career I am now,” said the 33-year-old, who had worked alongside the Wanderers’ management team at Rochdale and Barnsley.
“When I got the phone call I wasn’t in a good place at Oldham but I was always going to jump at it. The chance to play for a club like Bolton under two people who know me so well wasn’t something I thought would necessarily come.
“What happened at Oldham was just circumstances. The way the club has been run they were getting rid of players of a certain age or a certain wage. I played nearly 50 games for them last season, so I’d like to think I was still worth something.
“Peter Clarke was their player of the year and they did the same to him, albeit he was out of contract. I didn’t feel we were being treated with respect. But I made a point to act professionally because then good things happen.”
O’Grady was poised to go straight into the Bolton side against his former club Rotherham United but a freak dislocated knee suffered on the training ground delayed his debut until mid-October.
A second start was delayed by the rain, which forced the postponement of Saturday’s game at Lincoln City, but the striker remains convinced there is enough quality in the squad to claw back the points on the teams above them in the table.
“It’s a challenge but I think it’s one we’re capable of overcoming,” he said. “I have played with a lot of these players before, some at Championship level, so to have that sort of pedigree should count for something.”
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The experienced striker was facing an uncertain future after being frozen out by Oldham Athletic over the summer – told by the League Two club he was too old and too expensive to be a part of their plans.
But when old pals Keith Hill and David Flitcroft offered him a surprise shot at Bolton he saw a chance to achieve something special.
“They have always got the best out of me, whether I was a kid or someone at the stage of my career I am now,” said the 33-year-old, who had worked alongside the Wanderers’ management team at Rochdale and Barnsley.
“When I got the phone call I wasn’t in a good place at Oldham but I was always going to jump at it. The chance to play for a club like Bolton under two people who know me so well wasn’t something I thought would necessarily come.
“What happened at Oldham was just circumstances. The way the club has been run they were getting rid of players of a certain age or a certain wage. I played nearly 50 games for them last season, so I’d like to think I was still worth something.
“Peter Clarke was their player of the year and they did the same to him, albeit he was out of contract. I didn’t feel we were being treated with respect. But I made a point to act professionally because then good things happen.”
O’Grady was poised to go straight into the Bolton side against his former club Rotherham United but a freak dislocated knee suffered on the training ground delayed his debut until mid-October.
A second start was delayed by the rain, which forced the postponement of Saturday’s game at Lincoln City, but the striker remains convinced there is enough quality in the squad to claw back the points on the teams above them in the table.
“It’s a challenge but I think it’s one we’re capable of overcoming,” he said. “I have played with a lot of these players before, some at Championship level, so to have that sort of pedigree should count for something.”
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