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Owen Beck feels he is ready to challenge senior stars Jack Iredale and Declan John for a regular starting spot at Wanderers.
The Liverpool loanee is yet to feature in a league game for Bolton but has recently nudged ahead of fellow Welshman John to get a place on Ian Evatt’s bench.
Beck admits he has been playing catch-up in the opening months of the season after cutting short a loan spell in Portugal to link-up with Anfield team-mate Conor Bradley at the UniBol.
But he now feels confident he can make an impact for the Whites, even picking up tips from his left wing-back rivals in the squad.
“I just really want to be successful here at Bolton,” he said. “It is a strong squad, and there are a few great players in my position but, for me, I just keep working hard, leave it to the gaffer to pick the team.
“Certainly, Jack Iredale and Declan John are experienced players who have played lots of games at a good level, so I have tried to look at the way they do things, learn, pick stuff up off them.
“But at the end of the day it is down to me. The gaffer has said to me that this can be a positive loan for me and for Bolton. I just need to keep going in training.”
Beck was pleased to see Bradley hit the ground running as a Bolton player, with the Northern Ireland international now a fixture on the right flank for Ian Evatt.
Now after acclimatising to life at Wanderers and getting his fitness levels up to the standard required to play wing-back in a high-energy system, the 20-year-old hopes he can write some headlines of his own.
“It’s great to see Con doing well,” he said. “He is a good lad, one of my best mates, so now I need to try and do the same.
“I’d spoken to him quite a lot before coming here. I’d watched a few games and checked everything out. “We go back a long way, we’re used to playing with each other and we definitely like to see each other doing well in the team. But at the end of the day it is about looking after yourself, individually, so I will be doing the best I can possibly do while I am at Bolton.”
Beck freely admits his last loan move to Portuguese top-flight team Famalicão did not go according to plan but that has made him doubly determined to make it work at Bolton.
“I thought I’d give it a go in Portugal after speaking to the staff at Liverpool and In the end it didn’t work out, so I came back and got the chance to come to Bolton.
“I’d played a few games in pre-season and been on the bench a few times when the league started. “It was certainly different. Maybe the league over there is a bit more tactical but there is definitely a challenge for me here now and it is just a case of showing I can do it.
“I think I learned a lot going over there. Not everything goes according to plan in football but you have to make the best of it.
“I feel like having a good season in League One will help me improve as a player, so I want to take that back to Liverpool.”
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