RONAN Darcy has been cleared to leave Wanderers on a free transfer if he can fix up a deal with League Two Swindon Town.

Ian Evatt has confirmed the 21-year-old midfielder has been on trial at the Energy Check County Ground for the past week.

Darcy wants regular football and with no prospect of that in Bolton’s first team this season he is hoping to find a deal elsewhere despite having a year left on his contract.

Evatt says the door is not closed on the academy graduate should be fail to get fixed up, and he will be welcomed as part of Matt Craddock’s B Team squad, designed to push players closer to senior football.

“I think what we’re trying to do is do right by Ronan really,” he told The Bolton News. “Do we think he’s ready for our first team? No at the minute is the truthful and honest answer.

“Could he be part of the B team? Of course he could, and he would be a very good part of that B team as well.

“But he wants to forge a career. He wants to play regular first team league football and we don’t want to stand in his way to do that.

“We wish him well and hopefully it works out at Swindon. If not, he’ll come and be part of our B team and we’ll give him further development time. It’s a win-win really.”

Darcy spent almost all of last season out on loan at Sogndal in Norway and Queen’s Park in Scotland and has not started a game at Bolton since November 2020.

Evatt was generally pleased with the performance against Stockport County on Tuesday afternoon, conceding that his players are still combining matches with a heavy training workload.

County provided stiff opposition in the 2-2 draw and the Bolton boss is hoping the quality of games and performances can now improve between now and the end of the month.

“Regardless of divisions, regardless of where the game was played, Stockport are a team that have been used to winning for a long time now,” he said. “When you come up against that tide of momentum, like we saw at the start of last season, it can be really challenging and difficult to play against.

“What was pleasing today is we did some real positive things but one or two things we need to really work on. But the teams are very much mixed at the moment. The players are still training really hard, they’re not fully fresh and fit and ready to go for matchdays.

“We’re still trying to overload them to get that work into their legs, but as pre-season progresses we’ve got some really good games coming up.

“We’ve got Watford next week and then Carlisle and Huddersfield so some real big tests and challenges that will start to build the minutes up into the lads and progress from there.”