‘It kind of took off and blew up!’ – Inwood’s hope for Bolton chance next season

SAM Inwood hopes his eventful end to the season can push his claim for first team football under Steven Schumacher.

The highly rated 19-year-old overcame a defensive injury crisis to start the final two games against Peterborough United and Stevenage, having played fewer than 30 minutes of senior football in the Vertu Trophy to that time.

Inwood was selected for Northern Ireland’s Under-21s a year ago, a departure from his first international appearances with the Republic, and now that he has made the breakthrough, he is looking forward to what lies ahead.

“It kind of took off and blew up in the last few months, really,” he told me. “For the first several months of the season, I was in the B squad, and perhaps at the end, I was hoping to get out on loan. For whatever reason, that did not work out.

“Then you are thinking: ‘Is this a season where nothing’s happened?’ And then I got called up to the first team, and you look back and realize it’s been a fairly good season for me.

“I’d heard quite a lot of lads had clubs ringing up asking them to come and trial, but I didn’t really have anything.”

Inwood temporarily trained with Bolton’s development squad, but it was only a few weeks later that Mark Litherland, who had previously worked with him at Bury, offered him a second chance at a scholarship with the Whites.

He worked with Julian Darby in the young team before another set of options presented themselves and he was offered a professional contract by the club.

“It was quite strange,” he explained. “The January before my professional contract, I went to a two or three-day Republic of Ireland camp in Loughborough, and when I returned, I trained with the first team for the first time.

“I then traveled with the first team, received the pro, moved to the B team, and trained with the first team on a regular basis.

“I’ve been in and out of training since then, and I’ve traveled a few times, so you just have to handle each situation separately and work it out.

“You cannot think, ‘I’ve been with them, so I should be on the bench, or I’ve been on the bench, so I should be starting.'” You cannot think that way.

“You just have to take each week as it comes.” It’s okay if they need you or want you. But if they don’t and you’re on the B squad, you can’t be too depressed; you simply have to say, ‘Right, I’ve got to do well for the B team now.”