PRIDE stung by his first relegation, Zach Clough is vowing to come back a better player next season at Wanderers.

A golden boot for his seven goals this season will do little to alleviate the frustration felt by the 21-year-old striker in the coming weeks after his club slipped into League One for the first time since before he was born.

Clough missed two chunks of the current campaign, one as he recovered from shoulder surgery, the other when a thigh injury prevented him from featuring through virtually the whole transfer window.

Considering he is still nursing the repaired shoulder back to full health, Clough’s contribution to Wanderers’ ultimately futile cause has been quite considerable. But the youngster is determined to use this season’s hardship as a motivation, and come back in August to showcase his real potential.

Speaking to The Bolton News, Clough confirmed he is in no mood to push for a move elsewhere despite relegation. And though other clubs higher up the leagues may test that loyalty, he is focused on returning next season better equipped to cope with the physicality he expects to face.

“This season has been a massive learning curve for me,” he said. “I hope I don’t have to go through it again, and I hope the club and the fans never have to go through all that again either.

“But it will make me better. It will make me stronger.

“In the last few weeks I feel like I am getting back to where I was when I first got back into the team.

“It hasn’t been easy. It’s only now I am getting a chance to build up my upper body, which I haven’t been able to do since the shoulder operation.

“There is a lot more to come from Zach Clough. I want to keep working hard and there will be plenty more goals to come too.”

Fans got a reminder of Clough’s class with a free kick against Cardiff City but the academy graduate is not happy with the number of goals he has scored this season, regardless of his injuries.

“I should have scored more goals,” he said. “I feel like I have missed chances I should have scored and I’m disappointed by that.

“I should be in double figures even though I had four months out. But again, I am working hard to make sure next season is better.

“I always practice free kicks on my own after training, you can ask Jimmy Phillips, I always have. It’s the only way I can improve and they are really important.”

Scoring goals is not the only area Clough intends to improve on, however, and there was evidence in the game at Cardiff he is starting to embrace the defensive side of the game too.

“I don’t enjoy it but it’s part of the game,” he smiled. “It is making me fitter and looking at the game differently instead of cheating on the halfway line doing nothing.

“When Tyler Garratt came on, I felt like I needed to protect him and drop back a little bit more. He did really well and he can take a lot out of that performance.”

Long-serving first-team players are thin on the ground at present, and may be even more so next season with David Wheater and Mark Davies the most likely to move on to pastures new.

Clough – who has been within the club’s ranks as a junior since the age of eight – likes the idea of being considered an elder statesman.

“It’s quite strange to think me, Josh (Vela) and Rob Holding could be some of the most experienced of the lot,” he said. “But we know each other well, know what we can do, and hopefully we can make sure next season is more successful.”

Jimmy Phillips, who saw the current crop of youngsters through the academy system and is now assembling them as a bedrock for the next manager, is confident they can cope with League One.

“I believe they will,” he said. “The young players know they are still developing and the next manager may have his own views – but I think provided they listen to and learn from the right people they can be a big benefit to the club.”