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Ronan Darcy is starting to tick more of the boxes for Ian Evatt as he bids to become a first team regular at Wanderers.
After scoring in the opening two pre-season friendlies, Darcy looks to have returned to Lostock from the summer break in good form.
The homegrown midfielder had struggled to nail down a regular spot in the side last season, making 11 appearances in total and failing to feature at all from mid-December onward.
Darcy impressed Evatt with his performance at Atherton Colls on Tuesday night and the Wanderers boss says more of the same can see him get into contention for a place in the side.
“He is got to do that regularly, just do that,” he told The Bolton News. “It’s that simple really. Ronan is still learning and he is still developing physically. He is so much better than he was at the start of last season.
“He is growing into his body. He is doing out of possession stuff much better.”
Darcy came on to the scene as an attacking midfielder, playing briefly in the Championship and in League One under Phil Parkinson and Keith Hill.
Evatt pointed towards Gareth Southgate’s England squad as a lesson on where he needs some of his attacking players to progress the game.
“I say to the attacking players and those creative types, the reason why Jack Grealish and Phil Foden aren’t regulars in the England team is their out of possession stuff,” he said.
“It is because Gareth trusts the others more out of possession. That is a fact, so you have to be equally as good in possession as out of possession and those types are progressing that side of their game really well as you can see.”
Evatt was pleased with Wanderers’ work out of possession on Tuesday night - something which has been worked on extensively on the training ground since the players returned.
“Some of our recovery runs tonight, it looked similar to Leeds,” he said. “Once we lost the ball, we hunted in packs, recovered quickly, 40 to 50 yards and regained it. That is what we want. Both sides of the game are as important as each other.”
Evatt is now looking to see his side progress again this weekend as they take on FC United of Manchester.
“It’s another game, another test, a slight step up from the two teams we have played already in pre-season," he said. “They are a decent club in their own right and the manager tries to play football the right way so it’ll be a good game."
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