Why Sam Dalby will be ‘important’ for Bolton this season after Reading cameo

Wanderers will continue to build up Sam Dalby’s fitness after the striker’s debut off the bench against Reading.

The attacker arrived on a free transfer from Wrexham this summer, but suffered a ruptured hamstring during pre-season.

He joined Bolton after an excellent loan spell in the Scottish Premiership with Dundee United, when he scored 15 goals in 37 games.

“Brilliant to have him back involved,” Schumacher told The Bolton News. “He has worked extremely hard since he was injured.

“The physios were very impressed with his attitude towards getting himself back into contention, and we just thought, ‘You know what, let’s give him 15 minutes.'”

“We’re going to have to get him some minutes somewhere; the B Team has another game next week, so he’ll play in that.

“We will promote him because he is a good player. He will be good and valuable to us.”

Richard Taylor played 45 minutes for the B team in their Central League debut against Preston North End on Wednesday afternoon.

There were additional minutes for Carlos Mendes Gomes and Sam Inwood to keep the group going as the league games came thick and fast.

“We had it in our heads from Monday really, let’s put him [Dalby] in and get him 15 minutes,” Schumacher told me.

“He’s probably not ready for 45 minutes; he’s just trained four or five days in a row, so we’ll get him some minutes next week and work it out.

“Rich was fine, he played 45 minutes, Carlos played 60 minutes, Sam Inwood played 90, so it was a good run out for everyone.”

Schumacher believed there were many positives to take away from his performance against Reading, but he was unhappy not to finish the game after being in perfect control for such periods.

“No one can pinpoint what that is in football; it is simply momentum,” the head coach pondered. “There are times when the opposition receives a second ball, lands on something, or wins a tackle.

“I just felt like we kicked it too far, too often, and it became a scrap. There were a number of second balls that we controlled and passed on in the first half and were alright.

“I’m not sure if it was because Reading’s substitutes came on to give them some energy, but we just lost control of the game for 10 minutes. And in that 10 minutes, we were punished.”