COREY Blackett-Taylor believes he knows what can turn Wanderers from promotion nearly men into a League One success story.
Championship football is the aim for Steven Schumacher’s side this season and they go into this weekend’s home game with Barnsley sitting third, six points behind Lincoln City.
A couple of years ago Blackett-Taylor made a January loan move from Charlton Athletic to Derby County, who at the 30-game stage of the campaign had not yet pushed their way into the automatic promotion places. A win against Cheltenham Town on his full debut allowed them to leapfrog Wanderers into second spot – a position they stubbornly refused to relinquish all the way to May.
The 28-year-old winger showed on his Bolton debut at Wimbledon last weekend that he could be the man in the right place at the right time once again. And he has seen enough since arriving at the club to feel optimistic about another promotion chase.
“I think when you are a footballer you always have pressure on you,” he said. “It feels like when I made the switch to Derby from Charlton, it was the same kind of pressure they had to go up, I have been in that boat and I like the challenge.
“I like playing for something. I like having that winning mentality, so I just want to use that experience that I had with Derby, a promotion out of League One, and bring it here.”
Blackett-Taylor got off to a winning start, and part of his confidence in the direction Wanderers are heading is rooted in the build-up to his first game.
Just like fellow new arrival Rob Apter, he got only a couple of days to train with his new team-mates before the game at Wimbledon. Even in that short spell, however, he was struck by the level of preparation for the game, a commodity which he says helped Derby over the line in 2024.
“I have spoken to the gaffer about this but I think the detail is so important,” he told The Bolton News. “You know the squad is good enough to be up there, you know you have got everything in the changing room but it’s the teams that are on it every single day in training and don’t let their standards drop that get promotion.
“It’s finding your set pieces, being good in both boxes, being clinical in front of goal – all those things are what I saw when I went into the changing room at Derby, and I think, ultimately, that's what got us over the line.”
Ruthlessness in front of goal has been an issue for Wanderers to date, and one they hope new signing Johnny Kenny can help remedy. Saturday’s game at Wimbledon may have been more comfortable had the Whites taken more of their opportunities to score but Blackett-Taylor was also impressed by the way they held firm under pressure in the second half.
“I feel like that was a good example of what it is going to take,” he said.
“People think it's easy coming away from home against a side that are towards the bottom end of the league and there will always be that expectation but you have to get those basics right.
“Sometimes it looks easy but that is never the case. You could see Wimbledon in the second half putting pressure on, working hard, and the amount of games I’ve played in my career those 1-0 wins are the best ones.
“That shows your character as a team. Not every game is going to have loads of goals, even though I feel like we should have scored more in the first half, but at least we showed the character to see out the game, so it's positive.”
The night before the Wimbledon game, Blackett-Taylor was able to watch his former club Derby demolish Bristol City 5-0 and move on to the fringes of the Championship play-offs.
Only a couple of weeks ago he was playing in a winning team against another of his former clubs, Charlton, but the winger had sensed that he would have to move on in January to get regular starts, and when Bolton had to move quickly to find reinforcements after injuries to Amario Cozier-Duberry and Marcus Forss, he wasted no time agreeing to move to the North West.
“January can be like that, and I wasn’t sure at Derby,” he said. “I wanted some clarity on what my near future was going to be like and then in the last week or so I knew that it would probably be me going out on loan.
“It was then just a case of choosing the right club. It was last minute, but when the opportunity to go to Bolton came along it was just a no-brainer.
“Watching them do well (on Friday night) was great, it was good to see, and it gave me a bit more incentive for my own game, really, to go out and do the same sort of thing.
“It is obviously a similar feeling around there because before I left they were doing really well, picking up points, and I could see that they were getting closer to the play-offs.
“Personally, I am in a good position. Derby are doing well, which is great, and obviously I want to do well here and then see what happens.”
Blackett-Taylor had some familiar faces in the Bolton dressing room when he arrived last week, including striker Mason Burstow, who had been breaking through into senior football when they played at Charlton together.
He scored on his last appearance against Barnsley, playing for the Addicks just before his move to Derby. And he is looking forward to playing in front of the home supporters after being impressed by their backing from the away end on Saturday.
“If they can bring that sort of energy to the home games then it will be amazing,” he said.
“if I get the chance then it will be great for me, having friends and family there too.
“But mostly it is about keeping this run going. The meetings we have had in the past few days have all been about keeping that consistency up, having that winning mentality. And I think the lads have done well.
“It’s 13 points out of 15 now so we want to kick on. It gets easier when you win each game, every point gives that bit more confidence.
“Every time I have played against Bolton in the past you can see how big the club is, the stadium, it’s probably the biggest in League One. And there’s potential to be a big club in the Championship.
“I wanted to be a part of that, part of a team that is going for promotion, that play good football and have a squad that can achieve what they want to do.
“Game time was a big part of it as a player, obviously I want to play as much as I can, but the manager, the style of play, the size of the club, that’s why I’m here. It was an easy decision for me to make.”
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