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Dion Charles looked ahead to Saturday’s heavyweight clash with Sunderland and roared: “Bring it on!”
The Wanderers striker cannot wait to tackle one of League One’s promotion favourites after getting himself off the mark at Shrewsbury in spectacular fashion last weekend.
Hopes are high that ticket sales will be approaching the 20,000 mark by the weekend, as Ian Evatt’s side look to make it a hat-trick of successive victories.
“It is going to be brilliant, a sell-out game,” Charles told The Bolton News. “They are in good form, and so are we.
“It’s two massive ex-Premier League clubs, so I think it will be a good clash.”
Having scored his first Bolton goal and dedicated it to his new-born daughter, Hattie, at the weekend, Charles is now eager for more magical moments to celebrate.
As the club’s biggest cash signing for several years, the 26-year-old front man accepts he will have expectation on his shoulders.
“There will always be pressure playing for this club,” he said. “It’s something I relish and I will take it in my stride.
“I don’t really feel it – but I think when you play for a club of this stature then there was always be some pressure on you to succeed as a striker. You have to show why you are here.
“I will work hard on and off the pitch and see where that takes me.”
Charles is also hoping regular football will benefit his international ambitions with Northern Ireland.
With six caps already to his name, the striker managed to continue playing for his country even though he was no longer included in Accrington Stanley’s first team squad because of a contract dispute earlier this season.
But Charles says his relationship with national boss Ian Baraclough has been a big help – and he intends to repay his faith by progressing as a player at Wanderers.
“The international manager has been brilliant with me and kept in contact throughout the whole situation, from the start of the season,” he said.
“Putting in performances like that and scoring goals like that, I hope I won’t be too far away from the next squads, hopefully.
“I think it comes down to how I am as a person, how hard I work on and off the pitch, the stuff I do away from football which people don’t realise. While I am here, I will work as hard as I can to make those fans happy.”
Back-to-back wins have helped Wanderers move up to 15th place in the table, five points clear of the bottom four with one game in hand.
Looking up, the Whites are 14 points behind the top six with at least one game in hand on everyone, barring Portsmouth.
Charles says he was not concerned that he had walked into a relegation battle when he joined the club.
“The league table was a bit false,” he told us. “The team was performing very, very well at the start of the season and then there were injures, which didn’t help, Covid, but the talent in that dressing room is very, very good. We will be fine.”
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