ZACH Clough has hit the ground running in his second spell with Wanderers.

Phil Parkinson is delighted by the striker’s early progress since returning on loan from Nottingham Forest on transfer deadline day.

The Whites boss said last week that Clough had “stagnated” with a lack of game time at the City Ground but has seen in his first week back at Lostock that the 22-year-old has not lost his touch.

The academy graduate came off the bench in last week’s win against Bristol City and nearly capped off a fairy-tale return with the second goal of the night.

But since bringing the young front man back to familiar territory, Parkinson has no reason to believe a frustrating year at Forest has dampened his enthusiasm.

“He really wants to be here and that counts for a lot,” Parkinson told The Bolton News. “I watched training a couple of times at the start of the week and the couple of points I was going to talk to him about he showed me I didn’t need to bother. His work-rate, his physical stats were right up there.

“He looks extremely sharp but I have spoken to him about what we feel he needs to do tactically in games.

“But he’s a very intelligent footballer and I feel we have got players – like Sammy Ameobi and Josh Vela – who are on his wavelength.

“I think Cloughy needs those players who can match him and link-up with him, spot those little bits of movement.

“One or two of the lads who maybe haven’t played with him must of thought ‘wow, what a good player he looks’ because he’s been spot on, a real talent.”

Meanwhile, Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic has urged his side to show respect to a new-look Wanderers at the Macron.

“We didn’t win at home against Bolton,” he said. “We must trust in our possibilities and push to try and get the points. We have enough experience now to know easy games don’t exist.

“They lost their target man (Gary Madine) and they changed their shape a little bit against Bristol City. They played a quality game. They’ve probably tried to find a different solution. In the end they chose to play a little bit different with two strikers, and the plan worked perfectly for them.

“We observed the team with Madine and without Madine, and we know more or less what could happen, but we must be ready for any shape that we could find.”