Football Season Review

Not many clubs that drop from Championship into League One manage to bounce back at the first time of asking, but this has not been the case with Bolton, who did their homework well following their relegation to the third tier, bringing in a proven manager in Phil Parkinson ahead of the season, with this ultimately resulting in promotion for them. As is usually the case with sides that get relegated, Parkinson had some squad restructuring to do going into the new campaign, bringing in some new players while getting rid of the old one, but his arguably biggest success was re-signing David Wheater after the defender had initially not had his contract extended, given that he was an outstanding performer for the Trotters this season. Bolton pretty much always looked too good to be playing in the third tier - they started the season with a run of ten games in which they lost only once and spent the entirety of the campaign in or around the automatic promotion places. As is usually the case with Parkinson's sides, they were mainly built among tough defence and have had more draws than they would have like, with the fact that several important players missed playing time with injuries contributing to this. However, even during periods when they had three or four regular starters out, they managed to remain competitive and were better than the majority of the sides in the league, with direct promotion being a natural consequence of all season. Their goal now will be to avoid the fate of local rivals Wigan, who won League One two years ago but will return into the third tier next season.

Player of the Season: David Wheater