ZACH Clough admits he once questioned whether his chance would come at Wanderers – but he’s now loving the fact that everything he touches turns to goals.

After netting his sixth strike in nine games to sink Brighton, it seems there is no stopping the Denton destroyer.

But for a good 12 months under previous boss Dougie Freedman, many of us wondered whether the incredible goal-scoring form he showed at youth level would ever be witnessed on the senior stage.

Clough was leapfrogged by a handful of team-mates from David Lee’s successful Under-18s and it was not until the arrival of Neil Lennon back in October that he was fast-tracked to Championship football.

“I was getting my head down a bit when everyone else was getting a chance – players like Chris Lester, Tom Youngs, ones I’d played with in the youth team,” he told The Bolton News.

“I just went to the gym. I’m small and I wanted to get stronger. I just waited for the manager to come in and tell me I’d be playing.

“I believe in what I’m doing. I believe in my ability.”

At 5ft 7ins, questions were asked about whether Clough would have the necessary physicality to play in the hurly burly of the Championship, Freedman indicating in his final few months in charge that the teenager was “not quite ready.”

But that spell in the wilderness seems to have toughened the academy graduate up, and he bristles at the suggestion his height should be any hindrance to his ability.

“I heard it a few times, people saying I’m too small, I’ll never make it,” he said.

“I just wanted to throw it in their face. There are more players who are smaller now, the game has changed. Of course there are still big ones out there but you look at some of the top stars, all the little players are doing it now, coming into their own.”

As Clough walked into the press room to speak, his team-mate Matt Mills passed in the opposite direction with a cheery: “alright Messi?”

This might be Bolton, not Barcelona, but to young fans in this parish there have been few more exciting home-grown products in a generation at the club than Clough and his equally impressive team-mate Josh Vela.

Both players are central to Lennon’s rebuilding and perhaps more importantly, a beacon to other youngsters working their way up the ladder.

This newfound notoriety hasn’t quite sunk in for Clough, who still lacks a semblance of ego or professional veneer that a few years in the game might bring.

“I don’t seem to be able to do any wrong at the moment – well, except for the one I shanked over the bar in the second half, I should have scored that,” he joked.

“I’m enjoying it. You don’t know how long it’ll last. I’ve waited all my life to get to where I am and I’ve worked hard, so hopefully it continues.

“I think I’ve scored goals at every level I’ve been at. Now it’s working again in the Championship.

“I think I have got decent awareness. Sometimes I might pick the wrong pass but the other players are always talking to me and that’s how I improve.”

Nationally, the name Zach Clough may be slowly spreading but in the town of Bolton he has already built up a pretty hefty fan club.

On the way into the ground on Saturday, a few shirts bearing his name were dotted around the more familiar Eidur Gudjohnsens and Tim Reams, much to the youngster’s amazement.

“I saw the first one when I walked into the ground,” he said. “I assumed it must be the only one.

“It’s hard to get my head round the fact people might want my name on their shirt – but it’s good isn’t it?”

Despite all the attention, Clough is kept humble by regular chats with his manager, “he’s always taking me to one side,” the youngster admitted.

But he also has others around him making sure the headlines do not go to his head.

“My Gran and my Nanna keep my feet on the ground,” he said. “I’ll nip round for a cup of tea and they will let me know what they think. All my family do to – especially my dad.

“Everyone’s proud of me, I know that.”