MJ WILLIAMS admits he made a few assumptions before signing on the dotted line at Wanderers.

The combative midfielder agreed to leave Blackpool in late January to hop across Lancashire for what he assumed would be a promotion battle. But while the Whites did manage to transform their season to claim a place in League One, Williams held up his hands after failing to do his homework on his new club, who were placed 21st at the time.

“If I am being honest, when I signed I didn’t really check where Bolton were in the table,” the 25-year-old unburdened to The Bolton News, “I just assumed they would be up there for some reason, thought it would be fine.

“When I spoke to the gaffer for the first time he mentioned the club wasn’t in the best place but that he thought we would still get to the play-offs. I’m like, hang on…

“We won about three on the bounce and the lads started saying it in the dressing room, wondering how many more wins we might need to get into the top seven. “The closer we got, the more results went for us, the last-minute winners, we couldn’t really believe it.

“When we went out on Sunday the lads were all just looking at each other and saying: ‘How the hell have we done that?’ “You get that little bit of luck and from the sounds of things that wasn’t happening at the start of the season. “Once it starts, though, it doesn’t stop. It was an amazing feeling.

“My chin dropped when I eventually saw the league table – but not as far as it dropped when we scored four at Crawley, I thought we were going to win 1-0 forever.”

Though Williams had spoken to Evatt about a move last summer, the deal only went through in the winter window after a few frustrating months in and out of the side at Bloomfield Road.

The midfielder was one of a clutch of New Year signings that helped to transform the Whites’ campaign, a revolution that left him still shaking his head some seven days later.

“In knew I could come in and make some impact, but I didn’t see that happening at all,” he said. “It really does feel like two different seasons for me. I went from not playing as much as I wanted to at Blackpool to Saturday-Tuesday relentless at Bolton.

“I only came in during the second half of it all but being around the lads I know what it meant to them to turn it around, they talked about the tough times at the start of the season and that made it better for them.

“They went through all the people doubting them, doubting the team, but they came through and pushed on. Not many other teams will ever do that in League Two.”

Low moments were few and far between for Wanderers’ new crop of players – Williams, Kieran Lee, Dapo Afolayan, Declan John et al.

But Bolton’s response to the setbacks was one of the most encouraging aspects of their incredible dash to the finishing line.

“There were times when things didn’t go our way like Grimsby, Newport, Exeter but we stuck together, no matter what was being said,” Williams agreed.

“That week after the Exeter game was really tough because of how much everyone wanted it. Preparing for Crawley we basically blocked it all out – and I don’t think we did the week earlier. I think before the Exeter game we could feel how close everything was.

“We hadn’t seen the fans all season so it was great to see them outside but all of a sudden there was a lot more riding on it, more emotion, and it slipped away from us.

“We sat there for ages but after a while we started speaking up, realised we had to go again. And that’s the sign of a good team, you need to be able to take the rough with the smooth.

“I can’t say a bad word about this group, I have absolutely loved it. There are characters in there who will tell you if something is wrong.

“I’d say Sarce, Doyler, Baps, Gillo, Rico, I try and say a few words. We all try and speak up. If someone is in the wrong, we’ll tell them, but in a positive way.

“Losing at Newport was a big one. Sometimes when you have been on a long run and get beat, you end up losing a few – like Sunderland recently – but you need the right mental approach to start a new run.

“You get angry, of course you do, but the next day it’s work again. Sometimes it can go the other way – you get beat and can feel it slipping away from you – but that hasn’t happened at Bolton. We knew we could get the job done.

“There is a lot of character in there and I am sure we will all stick together next season and go again.”

Williams had not been in a promotion fight before but reckons some of the more experienced heads in the dressing room helped to calm things down in the final few weeks when every 90 minutes seemed crucial.

“There are lads in there like Izzy (Lloyd Isgrove) who have been promoted three or four times and they helped us out. It can be nerve wracking but you have to be able to be able to manage it,” he said.

“It was a completely different pressure for me. I remember being around the first team at Liverpool for a couple of months and looking at what they had to handle, it was incredible. I wondered how they coped with it.

“But since then I’d been at Rochdale and we were fighting relegation. It is a different pressure but similar because every game is still important and I’d definitely rather be up there and looking to win games to go up than looking over your shoulder all the time. Either way you have to stay focussed and try not to pay much attention on the emotion of the game.”