NOBODY needs to remind Peter Atherton about what local rivalries have been renewed now that Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic exist in the same division again.

Ian Evatt’s right-hand-man played a big part in getting the Whites back into League One at the first time of asking – but a born-and-bred Wiganer, who started his career with the Latics, was also delighted to see his old club stave off relegation after a season spent almost entirely in administration.

With both clubs looking to put hardship behind them and challenge at the top end of the table next season, Atherton expects their next meeting – hopefully watched by supporters – to be an occasion to savour.

“I remember the rivalry, even going back to my youth team games with Wigan,” he told The Bolton News.

“When I first got into the first team we’d come up against Bolton teams with players like Tony Philliskirk, John McGinlay, Julian Darby – who I also played at Coventry with early in my career.

“I’ve been back there as a coach in the academy as well, so as my hometown club it does have a place in my heart. Next season will be interesting because Bolton fans will be looking at me as a Wiganer and the Wigan fans will be looking at me in a Bolton kit.

“There are a few really big games up there but I know what that game will be like, and it’ll definitely add a touch of spice.

“We had a little sample of the stature of the club and the way the town revels in its success outside the Exeter game and when we got back to the stadium after the Crawley game. To have travelled six hours and then see that number of people turn up was just fantastic, it was a great experience.”

Atherton will also be reacquainted with another former club, Sheffield Wednesday, who dropped out of the Championship after off-the-field problems of their own.

In all, Wanderers will join up to eight former Premier League sides who could be in action in League One next season, depending on what happens to Blackpool and Sunderland in the play-offs.

As the last 12 months has shown only too well, however, reputation counts for little. And though many will say Bolton’s promotion from League Two was expected, Atherton believes the achievement of turning around a club which had dropped two divisions in two seasons should not be underestimated.

“Everyone looked at the size of Bolton and said ‘oh, you should be getting promoted’ but football just doesn’t work like that,” he said.

“You look in every division and there are big clubs who probably thought they wouldn’t spend long at that particular level but just end up being stuck there.

“The other day we had Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday battling on the final day so they didn’t end up in League One.

“You don’t have a divine right anywhere. There are no gimmies in football.

“The only way you can have success is to do like we did, pull together, work hard, create a good environment and more often than not, it gets you results.

“We’re in League One now and Bolton will be a big name in there again but we also have to think about where we have come from. Down to bare bones last summer, the gaffer had to rebuild, Sharon and the board had to rebuild behind the scenes.

“They have given us a good starting point I think for the season ahead but we have to be right up for the challenge because there are some tasty and interesting games up there.”

The self-confessed “elder statesman” of the Bolton dressing room, the 51-year-old admits life in League Two was anything but an easy ride.

“All season there were freak results,” he said. “I don’t think it was just the pandemic but it has happened in every league, bottom was beating top and vice-versa.

“In League Two, though, there genuinely were no ‘gimmie’ games. A team which on paper looked poor – a Grimsby or a Southend – but when we played them they both gave a really good show of themselves.

“It was never going to be easy but to go on the run we did at the business end of the season was a real achievement.

“We have done so well since Christmas in terms of getting to where we did and achieving promotion. The lads and the staff deserved to celebrate it.

“It was the second season running we (Atherton and Ian Evatt) have had some success but because of the situation with the fans it has felt a little bit muted. But I would take it all day long in terms of the remit we had when we came to the club. It was a big challenge, but everyone connected to the club have pulled together to get an amazing result.”

Atherton moved to Bolton with Evatt last summer after helping Barrow back into the Football League for the first time since 1972.

Evatt held interviews for his assistant position when it first became available a couple of years ago and picked Atherton – with whom he had little historical connection – because they shared the same football philosophy.

“We have a good working relationship. He respects me and asks my opinion on things but on decisions, he’ll always make them,” Atherton said.

“Sometimes we’ll have a chat and he’ll go through what he is thinking and I’ll be a sounding board more than anything. If he asks for advice I’ll give it and he’ll do it with the other staff as well, people like Matt Gilks.

“There are chit-chats about what changes might be made but as the manager he has to be comfortable with decisions he makes.

“He’s a young man in managerial terms and coming into a club of this size is not easy but he had a great grounding at Barrow. There was no squad when he went in there so he had to rebuild. This has been on a much bigger scale, no disrespect to Barrow, but you look at the timeframe and it’s not too long ago this club was playing in the Premier League and Europe.

“It has been a challenge from the off, but I think he’s done terrifically well.”

Trying to bed down a new squad alongside Evatt in the midst of a pandemic last summer proved a difficult task.

More than 20 new players came through the doors of the UniBol and guidelines issues by Government and the EFL meant the Lostock training base rarely operated in a normal manner.

“It has been difficult building relationships or having that little bit of downtime on the training ground,” Atherton said. “When you are together you are generally working so it takes you that little bit longer to get to know the person behind the player, which is key.

“I think it came through in the end by the way the squad galvanised. But from a coaching perspective, at one stage we were having to do four sessions a day with small groups of five or six, same thing, different times of day.

“Everyone just got on with it. Maybe it took us a bit longer to get going as a result, I don’t know, but it has definitely been a unique experience.”

Atherton admits, however, that the swift way new additions in the January window settled was a key element in the club securing promotion.

“Very good players came in and knitted into the squad quickly,” he said. “The standard and the quality of work on the training ground was very, very good. The attitude was brilliant and you need that to get promotion. They are a strong group.”