George Johnston will embrace the challenge brought by the increased competition from Jack Iredale joining Bolton Wanderers this summer and believes a strong squad is what the players want.
Wanderers kicked off their pre-season schedule in style with a 9-0 victory over Longridge Town earlier this week and took the lead in the first half through Kyle Dempsey, before Elias Kachunga fired home a second not long after. Amadou Bakayoko added a sublime third before half-time.
Ian Evatt changed his side completely for the second half and made 11 changes. Striker Dion Charles bagged a brace and was teed up by Liverpool loanee Conor Bradley on both occasions.
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Johnston scored Bolton's sixth before Charles completed his hat trick from the penalty spot after Bradley had been brought down in the box. Jon Dadi Bodvarsson and Dapo Afolayan also found the back of the net as Wanderers secured victory in emphatic fashion.
Iredale was on the left hand side of the back three in the first half. The former Cambridge United man impressed on his debut and had a hand in a couple of Bolton's goals.
The left hand side of defence is where Johnston typically operates and made the position his own last season. It appears he will have competition for that role this season with Iredale arriving.
But it is something the former Liverpool youth teamer enjoys having and feels competition for places is something which ought to be expected at a club like Wanderers. After a strong off-season where he developed his strength and physique and coming in to pre-season, Johnston feels the squad depth is now there to push on in the upcoming 2022/23 campaign.
He said: “Jack coming in will add more competition, which I might not have had last season. You should expect that at a big club like Bolton and embrace it. Hopefully I can push on and improve on what I did last year.
“I don’t think I am as versatile as Jack in that sense, he is more of a left wing-back than I am, but I am comfortable playing anywhere across the back three. I’m left tooted, so maybe better on that side, but if I got shifted across I could cope.
“That is what we wanted to be like – a strong group, not just a strong starting 11. With that strength in depth we can push on now, especially with the five substitutions this season, there will be lots of options for the manager.
“I feel the best I have ever been coming into a pre-season. I feel bigger, heavier, sharper and more powerful, so that can only put me in good stead for the rest of the season.
“I think going into he off-season I had tunnel vision, one goal. When I went off on holiday all I was thinking about was what the gym was like and when I could get in it.
“Coming into pre-season these days you know nobody comes in our of shape or unfit. You have to hit the ground running right away because there is so much competition ready to take your shirt."
Wanderers are next in action on Saturday afternoon when they are on their travels again, this time to take on Chorley for a 2pm kick-off. Johnson was pleased with how Wanderers have kicked off pre-season after the success of the club's Portugal training camp on the Algarve and is looking forward to improving further when they head to Victory Park.
The Wanderers defender said: “It was probably the best way we could have started pre-season. These games are always tricky, kind of a lose-lose, you are expected to win and put on a good performance but from what I saw in the first half and played in the second half, we showed what the manager wanted us to in abundance. It’s exactly what we wanted it to look like and thankfully it came to fruition.
“It was one of the toughest first weeks of pre-season I have ever had and it can only benefit us, really. We want to be fitter than last season where we finished strong but we want to push on from there now.
“When you get a week away it is 24-seven and there is more opportunity to stay on the pitch because there is a morning session, a gym session, then an afternoon session. You know when you are with the lads all the time you are building up relationships and working hard on the pitch. It is a good working environment to be in.
“Chorley will be another good run out. We’ll debrief the Longridge game and see what we can improve on. I think some parts were lacking in sharpness but the energy and application was there and we just need to keep that going now.”
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