JACK Hobbs is not prepared to settle for Wanderers merely treading water this season.

The summer signing is determined their good work in the early stages of the season will not go to waste, insisting if they pull together the tools for success are in place at Bolton.

One of Phil Parkinson’s first recruits of the summer, the former Nottingham Forest and Liverpool man has forced his way into the starting XI – no mean feat when competing with the likes of David Wheater and Mark Beevers – and is determined they build on their current 16th place.

“Looking at the table now, it is so tight that a couple of back-to-back wins shoot you straight up there,” he told the club’s matchday programme.

“We’re not actually too many points off the play-offs at the moment, whereas we’re only so many above the bottom three. It’s very tight.

“We have stuttered a little bit recently, but we’re in a good position and just need to make sure to build from here and do the right things.

“Without a doubt the signs are encouraging. The togetherness and team ethic is something that will stand us in good stead and I think on another day, a couple of the games we have lost have been very close and may have been a different story.

We just need to keep working hard, doing the right things and listening to the gaffer in training to progress from there.”

Dislodging the partnership and mainstay at the heart of the back line was never going to be easy but, having started the last five games, Hobbs has high regard for the competition and the players now vying to take his place in the team.

“I am just glad to be playing,” he said. “The competition here is quite high and that is definitely a good thing. We have started so well, so I had to bide my time and play as well as I could when the opportunity came, and from there, it’s just a case of trying to keep the shirt every week.

“It is great to be playing and staying fit though – that’s all you ever want as a footballer.

“Staying in the team is the aim now, but the only way of doing that is by playing well.

“Everyone wants to start the games and it is about taking that opportunity when you get it.”