HAVING waited so long to make my Premiership debut, it didn't feel like a top flight game at all.
I admit, when I was on the bench I was itching to get on and feared I'd missed my chance because the manager had already sent on Per Frandsen and Mario Jardel. Seeing the minutes tick away, I wondered if I would actually get on at all.
Naturally, I was delighted when the manager decided to pick me as his third substitute, but my Premiership debut was strange because we were only playing Wolves.
I played against them four times last season in total, for Burnley and when I went on loan to Reading, so it felt more like a Nationwide League game than anything else.
But I can't complain, especially after setting Kevin Davies up for our equaliser just a few minutes after getting on the pitch. But I'll come back to that later.
One way of describing my first month at Bolton is frustrating. After waiting so long to find out what the Premiership was really like, I almost blew it because of a niggly injury which kept me out for nearly a month.
I was wondering whether I would ever get my chance, and sitting on the bench on Saturday, I was thinking that I was a bad luck charm. So it was nice to get on a make a contribution.
I got a bit of deja vu to be honest because it revived memories of when I supplied a cross for Phil Gray to score and snatch a point for the Clarets on the opening day of the 2000/01 season at the Reebok.
I was a substitute that day too. We went 1-0 down to a Per Frandsen penalty midway inside the first half, I came on early in the second half for John Mullin and put in the cross for the equaliser.
It was a similar scenario against Wolves on Saturday.
Emerson Thome caught them cold with a quick throw-in, I got the ball and saw Kevin out of the corner of my eye. I knew that if I hit the right sort of ball in, he would have a chance and he finished it well.
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