NEIL Lennon wasted no time laying down some ground-rules and outlining exactly what he expects from his under-performing Wanderers.

It was only day one of the Northern Irishman’s reign and he had yet to be joined at that point by right-hand men Johan Mjallby or Garry Parker but the former Celtic boss has clearly come to Bolton to have things his way – a winning way.

A minor change it may seem on the surface – but Lennon’s first significant order on the training ground was for his players to take off their woolly hats after the warm up.

“They don’t play football in woolly hats, so why should they train in them?” was his perfectly logical reply. “When it gets cold I might allow some gloves but if they want to get warm, they’d better run around.”

Euxton isn’t known for its forgiving weather conditions but then Lennon has spent the last few years running up and down fields in Lennoxtown.

“You’d get four seasons in one day there,” he smiled. “I want them to head the ball but you can’t do that with a hat on.”

Another alteration that was clearly visible from the previous regime was the return to first- team duties for Josh Vela, Andy Kellett, Tom Eaves and Rob Hall, youngsters who had spent the last month flitting back and forth between the development squad having failed to meet the previous manager’s expectations.

Lennon promised a clean slate for all, and has made a good start.

He may have only been in town a short while but the former Leicester City midfielder already had a good idea of what he had inherited, player-wise, from his predecessor.

Jermaine Beckford, Liam Trotter and Matt Mills were all name-checked as former targets, while Mark Davies was ear-marked as a player he has admired from afar.

But Lennon has also seen this team warts and all – and spent Sunday night reviewing a DVD of the desperately disappointing defeat against Fulham that eventually cost Dougie Freedman his job. That he turned up on Monday morning shows he has a stomach for a fight.

His rapid appointment over the weekend was mirrored in a hastily-organised but packed press conference at the Macron Stadium, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Premier League days.

There was obviously heavy interest from North of the Border but while his stance softened a little over the course of the afternoon, he made it abundantly clear that he had not “come to talk about Celtic.”

Instead we got an intelligent, reasoned assessment of a squad that should be doing better than it is from a man keen to show he can mix it with the best, just as he did in the Champions League with the SPL giants.

The Championship’s basement club would not have been the next stop he planned after leaving Parkhead in May but from the urgency inserted into every single word, it was clear he was going to give his first managerial post in the English game every effort.

Whilst clearly a driven personality there were moments when the guard was let down for a joke with some of the journalists he had worked with in Glasgow.

“Once I find a tracksuit top that fits, I’ll be fine,” he added with a self-depreciating touch. “The kit man’s the first to go.”

The 43-year-old cut a very different figure from the well-groomed, slightly-built Freedman – and commanded an instant air of respect as a result.

He may well need to nip into Bolton Central to get some new clobber but with his early statements Lennon seems to have tapped instantly into the Bolton zeitgeist with ease.

“I came from a great club with a great history at Celtic and I’ve walked into another one here,” he said. “Everyone is hurting here. I just see Bolton now – my whole focus, my whole life – I will live, breathe and drink Bolton now.

“It may not go the way I want it to but I will give it a damn good try.

“I will do everything in my power to bring success to this football club.

“The players need to take on board what we’re saying to them but of course I want them to express themselves because they are very talented. They are just under-performing at the minute.”