CONOR Wilkinson cites Harry Kane’s remarkable rise to prominence as the reason he could soon be a first-team regular at Wanderers.

The young striker was sent out on loan to Oldham Athletic at the end of January with a ringing endorsement from manager Neil Lennon.

Now playing under ex-Wanderers Dean Holden and Tony Philliskirk, the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international has played a big part in the Latics’ recent revival.

But the 20-year-old still has designs on returning to the Macron Stadium to compete for a place and points to what fellow Londoner Kane has achieved in the last 12 months.

Kane spent time out on loan from Spurs to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City and only cemented a regular starting spot this season.

He has since scored 29 goals in 43 games and earned himself a call-up to the England squad – with a debut expected in tonight’s qualifier against Lithuania.

“The gaffer says he wants me to be one for the future,” Wilkinson said.

“He’s asked me to base myself on Harry Kane and I should have no problems getting into the first team.”

Wilkinson made his debut against Bury in the Capital One Cup this season and went on to make seven appearances in all for the Whites this season, including one off the bench in the FA Cup draw against Liverpool at Anfield.

The arrival of more experienced options at the end of last year curtailed his first-team opportunities but Wilkinson believes he has learned a lot from Wanderers’ group of veteran strikers.

“At the moment, Bolton have a lot of experienced strikers like Emile Heskey, Craig Davies and Eidur Gudjohnsen, so it was best to move on loan for now," he said in the Irish Independent.

“To be fair, when Heskey joined Bolton earlier in the season, he was of great help to me. Just little tips in training sessions were brilliant.”

Wilkinson is joined at Boundary Park by another Wanderers loanee Luke Woodland, who was voted man of the match in a 3-0 victory over Rochdale on Tuesday night, which put them four points behind tomorrow’s opponents Bradford in the final play-off position.