THREE men, two settees and a tape recorder – that was the scene in St Andrews as The Bolton News sat down with two of last season’s promotion heroes to talk about Wanderers’ chances in the Championship.

David Wheater and Josh Vela are now the two longest-serving players in Phil Parkinson’s squad and have each played in three different divisions for the Whites.

Room-mates in pre-season, they took time from their hectic schedule of (not) playing golf to chat about how the next nine months of football might pan out.

Pressure is on now Josh after your success last season, 10 goals and 50 starts – can you do it again?

JV: “It was a good year for me. I played midfield all year, got a few goals, now I have got to show I can do it in the Championship.

“I played pretty much every minute. Well, apart from one game against Grimsby in the cup where I was suspended but that doesn’t count.

“I want to get back into it. I’ve missed playing at this level. But I think I can go and get better now, I’m more experienced and I think I can do better this time.”

Can Wanderers compete when you look at the cash being splashed around the Championship now?

DW: “Every team has been in the Premier League at some point. There’s so much money in the game now – it’s filtering down into the Championship. I hope we get a bit.

“I know we haven’t spent much… Or I don’t think we have. But the manager has brought some good players in. He does a lot of homework on what people are like as lads, he doesn’t like big time Charlies and so we always get on well.”

Would you take 21st place now, and ensure another season in the Championship?

JV: “It’s totally different now, isn’t it? When we first came down into the Championship everyone was expecting us to go straight back up but it didn’t happen. We struggled after that. Now we’re going up as underdogs, so maybe they’ll underestimate us. I’ll take that.

“We need to be an organised team. Don’t give anything away. We won a couple of games 4-0 last season but normally they were close, and we had to keep our shape.”

DW: “I’d be happy with it because I get a new contract if we go up.

“This season our aim should be to stay in the division. Obviously, you win as many games as you can but we need to get stable, we don’t want all the problems there were last time.

“It has been up and down the last few years. If we can settle down for a couple of years, build, and obviously the money situation hasn’t been the best. I’d take it, yes.”

Do you let yourself dream of the Premier League, though?

JV: “I’ve played there - I want to play there again, Wheats will be the same. “We know it’ll be tough. You look at some of the clubs at the top of the league and the money they are spending – Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Norwich, Villa – and it’s something I’m looking forward to, playing against top players in top grounds again.”

DW: “Like the Riverside? Theatre of Dreams.

“If we stay as organised as we were last season I think Alfie will get us some goals. If we’d had him earlier last season we’d have been promoted a couple of months earlier.

“The manager knows what he’s doing. I think we trust in him.”

How did you take Middlesbrough’s relegation, Wheats?

DW: “It’s weird, though. People ask if I still support them and I suppose I do but I don’t know any of the lads any more. There’s so much money in the game now clubs are just buying players – there always used to be five or six academy lads who you’d known for years. It’s a different team now.”

How did pre-season compare with the past ones? St Andrews is good for golfers.

DW: “It has been a good one. The gaffer’s a pure football man. Nick (Allamby) makes us do the running and sorts out the fitness but he’s more about organisation and shape.

“I went on one with Gordon Strachan a few weeks after the season had finished, end of May, in La Manga. It was in a Marine’s camp. That was crazy.”

JV: “It helps if you play golf. There was other stuff to do. A bit of table tennis – but not as much as there was with Owen Coyle.”

Any karaoke?

DW: “I haven’t seen any, but I’d give it another go. The last one turned out okay. If we get promoted I’ll release an album.”

Did a bit too much get made of your ‘celebrations’ Wheats?

DW: “Honestly, I only went out a couple of times. Maybe I get spotted more because I stay local – but there was a different video coming out every day.

“I wasn’t on a two-week bender. I went out two nights in two weeks. But they were good nights. Family time in the middle.”

Do you still get excited by a new season?

JV: Definitely. The closer the games come, the more minutes you play in the friendlies and you start looking at the fixtures. Everyone can’t wait to get started now.

DW: “It’s better when you do less running.”

Targets for the new season?

JV: “I want double figures. I have got the taste for goals now.”

DW: “I nearly caught you though, didn’t I?”

JV: “Nearly – but it wasn’t quite good enough, was it?”

DW: “I’ll let him score. As long as we stay up and we keep a few clean sheets I’ll be happy. I’ll let him take all the glory.

JV: “It doesn’t bother me. I just want us to be comfortable in the league, then we can build.”