JOHN McGINLAY: Wanderers still have a target to shoot at

Now we have got the monkey off our back and gained successive wins against Hull and Peterborough there is certainly a lot more optimism around the place.

We seem to be building up that momentum and at this stage of the season, once you get on a roll you can be very difficult to stop.

I still think we’re aiming at only one position, and that’s the one currently occupied by Brighton. It would take an amazing set of circumstances for someone else to drop out of the top six now.

But they are capable of a wobble. It happened to Middlesbrough and their recent results have been terrible. I would have backed Blackburn Rovers a couple of weeks ago too but it seems the Michael Appleton effect is wearing off and they are back to where they were.

The players, the manager and the fans know they are capable of doing it because we have seen it in little flashes here and there all season.

Now we’re putting performances together and even if they have to be a little bit gritty, as we were against Peterborough, good teams always find a way.

This is the perfect time to start putting your best form together too.

A team that builds up that head of steam and makes the play-offs is in a much better state than one that has hung around there all season and stagnated.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself because there is still a lot of work ahead but there are definitely signs that things are coming together.

And making that late dash might just be a godsend.

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WE might look back and say the loan signing of Craig Dawson was a very, very important stage of this season.

Since he came in from West Brom the kid has been excellent defensively, chipped in with goals at the other end and his organisation at the back has made Zat Knight look like a different player too.

Dawson has been the catalyst for the recent run, which has been built on some really good defensive performances.

I heard that Dougie Freedman has been making some noises about playing three at the back, which I assume would mean pushing Sam Ricketts and Marcos Alonso a bit further forward and maybe making room for David Wheater in the middle.

I think we have already seen that happen in games a few times when one of the full-backs has ventured forward, and it will be interesting to see how it works.

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SOMETIMES being a striker can be a thankless task.

Watching Marvin Sordell over the last couple of games, you can see the lad is looking a little frustrated that things are not necessarily coming off.

He gets through a lot of hard work, though, and that is something that people don’t always take into consideration when they point out that you are not scoring goals all the time.

Marvin was in good scoring form earlier in the season and I’m sure that will return. He has been on a run once, and I think he will again.

It will be interesting to see what Dougie Freedman does at Barnsley this weekend, and how he chooses to use Craig Davies against his former club.

Sometimes managers take a player out of the spotlight for fear that the occasion will get to them, sometimes it helps to wind them up.

I think Davies deserves a shot because he’s come off the bench a few times now and shown he’s up for a scrap. He’s got pace, gets behind defenders and he’s certainly a handful.

I suppose if you are the manager, then it’s just nice to have options.

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DAVID Flitcroft was obviously the players’ choice when he took over at Barnsley and that explains the response he got when he took over from Keith Hill.

When you are the assistant manager you often act as the conduit between the players and the boss, pick them up when they are down, and become more of a friend.

The players made a great case for him by getting results when they needed to, and it’s only now, a couple of months down the line, that he’s shown any signs of slowing down.

That 5-3 defeat at Bristol City last weekend could be a damaging one.

Has the bubble burst? I don’t think we can be that confident.

Oakwell isn’t a glamorous ground but the pitch is the same size as anywhere else. That’s where we need to do our talking, not in a cramped changing room with cold showers.

This will be a test but as we’ve seen this last couple of weeks, this is a different Bolton.

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CHRIS Eagles set the bar high at the start of the season – now he’s got to find a way of getting back to that level.

For one reason or another it hasn’t happened for Eagles in the last couple of months but I don’t think we should get too down on him.

He was head and shoulders above the rest before Christmas and once you slip below that, people start asking questions and wondering what has happened.

As a player it doesn’t matter how old or inexperienced you are, you always need to deal with those peaks and troughs of form. It’s all a learning curve.

Can you deal with it the right way? It is difficult when you find yourself under pressure and out of the team but his time will come again.

Everyone wants to be loved and Eagles is no different. He just needs to rediscover his mojo.

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I WAS very lucky to find myself in the company of one of my biggest influences in the game, Ian McNeill, on Sunday.

One of my absolute heroes, I went up to his home in Aberdeen to visit him on his 81st birthday along with his lovely wife Sheila.

Ian has been poorly recently but still has that same cheeky grin. In that sense, he’s barely changed a jot from his days at Bolton, as a key figure in Bruce Rioch’s management team.

He was the man who gave me my big chance in the game and took me pretty much everywhere he went, so it was nice to go and thank him again in person.