26-05-2025
'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 remedied a defensive injury crisis to start the final two games against Peterborough United and Stevenage having played less than half an hour of senior football in the Vertu Trophy to that point.
This was already a year when Inwood was selected for Northern Ireland's Under-21s – a departure from his first international steps with the Republic - and having made the breakthrough he is now looking forward to what comes next.
'It kind of took off and blew up in the last few months, really,' he said. 'For the first few months of the season I was in the B team and then maybe towards the end I was trying to get out on loan. For one reason or another that didn't come off.
'Then you are thinking: 'Is this a season where nothing's happened?' And then I got the call-up to the first team and, all of a sudden, you look back and it's been a pretty decent season for me.
'Seeing that I have been given that chance gives me hope for next year.
'I've just got to jobs" target="_blank">work hard in the off-season, work hard and improve pre-season and hope the gaffer selects me for first team again.'
Inwood has been with Wanderers since the age of 15, having been left in limbo after Bury's sad demise in 2019.
Though he was still representing Salford Schools, the defender was not sure if another club would step forward in the middle of the pandemic, a period of great uncertainty in the game.
'I didn't know what to do afterwards, I was a bit stuck to be honest,' he said.
READ MORE
Wanderers' Academy Legacy Programme explained as first caps handed out
Schumacher confident there won't be 'black clouds' following Bolton next season
Sharon Brittan: Promotion disappointment has strengthened resolve at Wanderers
'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 trained briefly with Bolton's development group but it was only a few weeks later that Mark Litherland – who had been with him at Bury – offered up a second shot of a scholarship with the Whites.
He worked with Julian Darby in the youth team before another cluster of opportunities presented themselves and he was offered a professional deal with the club.
'It was quite weird,' he added. 'The January before my pro (contract) I went down for a two or three day Republic of Ireland camp in Loughborough and when I came back from that I trained with the first team for the first time.
'I then travelled with the first team, got the pro, went to the B team, and then trained with the first team quite regularly.
'I've been in and out of training since and travelling a few times, so you've just got to take everything individually and work it out.
'You can't think: 'I've been with them so I should be on the bench, or I have been on the bench, so I should be starting.' You can't think that way.
'You have just got to take that each week as it comes. If they need you, if they want you, it's fine. But if they don't and you're involved with the B team you can't get too down about it, you have just got to say: 'Right I've got to perform well for the B team now.'
