BARRY Bannan has wasted no time getting involved at Wanderers.

The diminutive midfielder, toughened up on the ash pitches of Lenzie, near Glasgow, is already looking like a shrewd signing, just two games into his Bolton career.

When many Whites fans went misty-eyed as Chung-Yong Lee departed for Crystal Palace on transfer deadline day, Bannan’s arrival on loan in the opposite direction rather passed under the radar.

But the Scotland international has already shown glimpses against Derby County and more obviously against Fulham that his brand of intelligent football might be just what Wanderers need to knit their midfield together.

No player touched the ball more than Bannan on Tuesday night, or played more successful passes.

And while the player admits he is unlikely to bring goals to the Bolton cause, he does feel he can be a unifying influence on the pitch in a side containing several new signings.

“This is obviously a big club and all I want to do is come in and hopefully force our way towards the play-offs,” he told The Bolton News.

“There are quite a lot of new lads all in this at once, and one or two who don’t really speak English but you tend to find football has its own language. I don’t think it’ll matter too much, we’ll get to know how the manager wants us to play.”

Bannan helped Blackpool into the play-offs in 2009 before going back to Aston Villa and becoming a regular under Gerard Houllier, who even compared the 5ft 7ins playmaker with Spanish legends Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

But the 25-year-old arrives at Wanderers with something to prove.

Although a major part of the Palace team which got promotion under Ian Holloway he featured rarely for Neil Warnock and Tony Pulis, and was all-but put up for sale by Alan Pardew.

Bannan has 12 months left on his contract at Selhurst Park but is realistically up for grabs in the summer.

“I’ve got another year left,” he said. “But at the moment I’m just concentrating on playing as many games as I can while I’m at Bolton.

“You never know what might happen at the end of it.”

Bannan ended up as captain-by-default at Derby on his debut after David Wheater was injured in the first half at the iPro Stadium. Liam Trotter also limped off at the break to leave Wanderers’ game-plan in tatters.

But the team looked altogether more composed in midweek, and with the likes of Trotter, Craig Davies and Emile Heskey all poised for comebacks in the next couple of games, Bannan hopes the club can regain some consistency as a result.

“In that changing room there are really good players but there are a lot of players out injured which is really killing us,” he said.

“No matter how good a team you are if you have three or four of your top players injured, it is tough. But I do think there are good enough players here to help us push up the league.”