THE task ahead of him is a mammoth one but new Wanderers boss Keith Hill is eager to get his survival bid going.

His latest club’s new era kicks off at Rotherham tomorrow and as a Boltonian himself, Hill is excited about the challenge of engineering a League One survival bid.

Hill’s innate enthusiasm has been boosted by the welcome he and David Flitcroft have been given by the fans, who took no time to snap up the entire away allocation of tickets at the New York Stadium.

“It certainly is an exciting time for Bolton once again,” said Hill. “We’re excited, we’ve been excited since we first got the opportunity.

“We wanted the job, we’re here now and we’ve worked hard on the training pitch for the last seven to 10 days, we’re trying our best to prepare the players for a 39-game season.

“Our season starts now, it’s brilliant what the kids have done, they’ve been absolutely superb, we’re really thankful for them but we are now starting our season.

“We don’t want to play 39 friendlies, we want to be competitive in the league – and we will be.

“We are not here to write this season off and ready the football club for next season, this season is alive and kicking.”

Bolton’s valiant youngsters were able to shave one point off the deducted 12 the club began the season with.

But Hill refuses to even allow himself a cursory glance at the table.

Instead he is simply getting on with the business of heading into a new 39-game campaign.

“They’re big games,” he told The Bolton News. “I’ve not looked at the league table and I’m going to create my own league – the task is a mountain but we’ll try to conquer that mountain.

There are too many points still to play for, we won’t be giving up, we’re from Bolton so we don’t do that,

“We’re going to come with a charge. We’re enthusiastic about it and we’re going to remain calm and composed.

“There have to be key components in any fight – tactically, we’ve got to be good fighters, we have to have a ’10-men’ attitude with a brain, so we want intelligent energy, if you like.”