Bolton Wanderers faithful won’t have seen player success coming post-Blackburn decision | OneFootball

Jay Spearing was turfed out on loan before coming back to captain a promotion winning side. Aaron Morley will hope to enjoy a similar comeback.

Back in the 2016/17 campaign, Bolton Wanderers gained automatic promotion to the Championship at the first attempt under the management of Phil Parkinson.

It was a squad full of experience and with plenty of leaders, as well as some notable emerging talents, but the captain that steered them to that second-place finish behind Sheffield United – Jay Spearing – was a man that not many would have expected to have even had a future at Bolton at points across the 18 months prior, which had seen him loaned out to Blackburn Rovers and then play a bit-part role as the club were relegated.

Few were expecting him to return and succeed as he did. Now, as Bolton head into another promotion run-in in the third tier, Aaron Morley can look to Spearing as inspiration as he looks to help them win promotion to the Championship after returning from his loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers.

Jay Spearing’s departure and retribution

In Neil Lennon’s first game as Bolton boss away at Birmingham City in October 2014, then-captain Spearing was dropped to the bench before coming on and seeing Wanderers through to an excellent 1-0 win at St Andrew's.

However, that immediate dropping was a sign of things to come, with the Liverpool academy graduate struggling to ever win Lennon over and eventually being loaned out to local rivals Blackburn for the back end of the 2014/15 campaign.

Spearing returned for the 2015/16 season but was once again a bit-part player as Wanderers, amid severe financial issues, were relegated out of the top two divisions in English football for the first time since the 1980s and just the second time ever.

After four seasons at a club, one on loan and three after having joined on a permanent basis, which included the ignominy of having the captaincy removed and being turfed out on loan to a genuine rival, not many would stay or come back with any sort of vengeance.

However, following the appointment of the aforementioned Parkinson in the summer of 2016, Spearing became instrumental once again for Bolton; out from the cold and more than in the thick of it.

Back with the armband, he scored the only goal on the opening day of the campaign as Wanderers defeated eventual fellow promoted side Sheffield United at home and never looked back.

He would leave at the end of the season but what better way to have gone out than to have re-established yourself as a key player and restored your reputation with Bolton supporters?

When the decision was made to loan him to Rovers, few would have expected him to return to play such a pivotal role.

Aaron Morley will look to Jay Spearing for inspiration

There are comparisons to be drawn to Morley, who is back in the Bolton squad after an impressive loan spell at Wycombe in the first half of the season. He can look for inspiration from Spearing as he looks to help Wanderers surge back up the table and restore his own reputation at the club.

The midfielder joined Bolton in January 2022 from Rochdale and, in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign, established himself as a vital part of a side that collected 45 points from their final 22 games.

He would be a key man as Bolton finished fifth the following season before losing to Barnsley in the play-off semi-finals and then started the opening three games of the 2023/24 campaign when they won 3-0, 3-0 and 3-1 against Lincoln City, Cheltenham Town and Fleetwood Town; seeking automatic promotion.

However, as the season wore on and other players emerged, such as George Thomason and Paris Maghoma, Morley found playing time limited to the point where he departed the club last summer.

Joining what many would have expected to be mid-table Wycombe team on a temporary basis was now the catalyst for a new and improved Morley, rediscovering his form and finding more consistency to go with it.

Ian Evatt and Bolton recalled him from the then league leaders at the start of January and, despite moves from the Chairboys to sign him on a permanent basis, he has remained and is now a key man as Steven Schumacher’s Whites seek a top six finish once again, scoring the winner in a potentially crucial 2-1 win over fellow play-off chasers Leyton Orient recently.