Bolton Wanderers F.C. Reserves and Academy
Full name | Bolton Wanderers F.C. B Team | ||
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Nickname(s) | The Trotters, Junior Whites | ||
Founded | 1921 | ||
Ground | Eddie Davies Academy Bolton | ||
Manager | ![]() ![]() | ||
League | The Central League (B team) EFL Youth Alliance North West (under-18s) | ||
2023–2024 | The Central League 6th of 6 (reserves) EFL Youth Alliance North West, 3rd of 14 (under-18s) | ||
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Bolton Wanderers B team play their home games at the Eddie Davies Academy in Bolton.
Notable graduates of the squad include former captain Kevin Nolan, Republic of Ireland international Joey O'Brien and eventual first team regulars such as Nicky Hunt, Ricardo Vaz-Te, Josh Vela, Zach Clough and Rob Holding.
Of the current squad, graduate Aaron Morley has featured most often at senior level since re-joining Bolton in 2022, whilst Sam Inwood and Sonny Sharples-Ahmed have also made appearances for the first team squad.
History
[edit]Bolton first ever reserve team was set up in 1921.[1]
They have won the Central League twice in 1955 and 1995. Their most recent success came in the FA Premier Reserve league in 2007.
Previous years have seen the club compete in the Avon Insurance Premier League, FA Premier League North and Professional Development League 2.
They also participated in the Manchester Senior Cup and Lancashire Senior Cup in previous years, winning their third Manchester Senior Cup as recently as 2015 and winning the Lancashire Senior Cup twelve times, the last occasion coming in 1990–91 season.
In August 2016, the U21 side was renamed as the U23 side, after a consultation involving all 31 clubs in the Professional Development League 2, voted in favour of the new age parameters.[2]
Abolishment and Re-formation
[edit]Due to Bolton dropping to Category Three in March 2020 Bolton had no Development Squad in the 2020–21 season.[3] This was the first time since the reserves were created in 1921 that Bolton had not had a reserve team.[1]
After nearly a year without reserve team football, Bolton started setting up reserve friendlies in March 2021 so that their fringe players could get game time and plan to relaunch a reserve team for the 2021–2022 season.[4] Bolton Reserves entered The Central League for the 2021–2022 season having previously been part of that competition between 1911 and 1999.[5] They also took part in the Central League Cup.
Starting with the 2022–2023 season, the reserves rebranded to "Bolton Wanderers B" and though they originally considered leaving the Central League to instead schedule friendlies against other B teams and U23 teams, they instead decided to stay in the League and also do said friendlies as extra matches.[6][7]
Grounds
[edit]Previous reserve grounds at Bolton include their old home at Burnden Park, Hilton Park the former home of Leigh Centurions, Bury's ground at Gigg Lane, Spotland Stadium, home of Rochdale and Rochdale Hornets and County Ground (Leyland).
Since re-forming in 2021, the reserve team play at the Eddie Davies Academy in Lostock.
Occasionally matches are played at the first team ground at the University of Bolton Stadium.
The Academy
[edit]The Bolton Wanderers Academy was established in 1998 and is based at the club and the main training ground. It replaced the older, more informal youth system, and enabled the club to focus their youth development and scouting, employing new techniques and FA standards.
It is currently overseen by Dave Gardiner. It provides a stepping stone for youngsters to progress to the highest levels of football at Bolton Wanderers.
Scouts attend many local youth matches looking for talented boys. A boy will then be invited to attend training sessions at the academy. They are taken in as young as the age of eight. At this age, the boys start by simply attending after-school training sessions, but as they reach their middle-teens, their academic needs will be taken over by the academy if they are deemed athletically talented enough.
Between the ages of eight and twelve the boys play in eight-a-side games of three twenty-minute periods. It allows the boys to play as defenders or as attackers in small groups within a system and is not as physically demanding as playing eleven-a-side matches.
The first player to graduate from the academy to the first team was the former club captain, Kevin Nolan who had previously been on the youth books of Liverpool. He has since been followed into the first team by Joey O'Brien, Ricardo Vaz Tê, Nicky Hunt. Josh Vela, Zach Clough and Rob Holding amongst others.
In December 2012, the Bolton Academy was awarded Elite status by the Premier League.[8]
In June 2015, it was announced that the club had sought to downgrade from a Category One status in order to save money.[9] In March 2020, the club announced it would down grade to Category Three.[3]
Players
[edit]Academy (Under-18s)
[edit]As of August 2024.
Managerial History
[edit]Reserves/Development Squad/B Team
[edit]- 1991–2000: Steve Carroll
- 2000–2005: Neil McDonald
- 2005–2008: Jimmy Phillips
- 2008–2010: Alan Cork
- 2010–2012: John Henry
- 2013–2014: Jamie Fullarton
- 2014–2016: Iain Brunskill
- 2016–2020: David Lee
- 2021–2022: Sam Hird
- 2022–2023: Matt Craddock
- 2024–present: Andy Taylor
Youth Team/Academy
[edit]- 1985–1991: Steve Carroll
- 1991–1998: Dean Crombie
- 1998–2000: Martin Dobson
- 2000–2008: Chris Sulley
- 2008–2020: Jimmy Phillips
- 2020–2022: Mark Litherland
- 2022–: Dave Gardiner
Staff
[edit]- B Team Head Coach:
Andy Taylor
- Player/B Team Coach:
Andrew Tutte
- Head of Academy:
Dave Gardiner
- Academy Lead Professional Development Phase Coach:
Julian Darby
- Academy Lead Youth Development Coach:
Robert Moss
- Academy Lead Goalkeeping Coach:
Andy Fairman
- B Team Analyst:
Sean Taylor
- Academy Video Analyst:
Matt Stephens
- B Team Strength & Conditioning Coach:
Jack Inman
- Academy Strength & Conditioning Coach:
James Welsh
- Academy Physiotherapist:
David Newbold
- Academy Physiotherapist:
Matt Pearce
- Head of Academy Player Care:
Greg Gillard
- Head of Academy Education:
Alex Norwood
In addition, the academy employ staff from the first-team.
Graduates
[edit]The following players have been associated with the Bolton Wanderers Academy and have gone on to play league football for Bolton or other clubs since the academy was founded in 1998.
Academy Graduates who have made at least one senior appearance for the Bolton Wanderers first team.
Matthew Alexander
Bright Amoateng
Sam Ashton
Błażej Augustyn
Chris Basham
Adam Blakeman
Jordan Boon
Harry Brockbank
Eddie Brown
De'Marlio Brown-Sterling
Wayne Buchanan
Zach Clough
Charlie Comyn-Platt
Luca Connell
Ronan Darcy
Jack Earing
Jay Fitzmartin
Jarosław Fojut
Tyler Garratt
Arthur Gnahoua
Sonny Graham
Mitchell Henry
Rob Holding
Nicky Hunt
Sam Inwood
Andy Kellett
Callum King-Harmes
Chris Lester
Danny Livesey
Finlay Lockett
Niall Maher
Aaron Morley
Joe Muscatt
Kevin Nolan
Temitope Obadeyi
Sanmi Odelusi
Joey O'Brien
Michael O'Halloran
Alex Perry
Arran Pettifer
Dennis Politic
Joe Riley
Regan Riley
Alex Samizadeh
Adam Senior
Ricky Shakes
Sonny Sharples-Ahmed
James Sinclair
Robert Sissons
Johann Smith
Cleveland Taylor
Oscar Threlkeld
Lamine Toure
Matthew Tweedley
Ricardo Vaz Tê
Josh Vela
Tom Walker
Danny Ward
Joe White
Nathan Woolfe
Tom Youngs
Other players associated with the academy who have made at least one senior appearance for league clubs in Britain or abroad.
James Ball
Rhys Bennett
Michael Bird
Bedi Buval
Michael Byrne
Matthew Cassidy
James Caton
Christopher Cvetko
Tom Eckersley
Mark Ellis
Ashley Fletcher
Tom Grivosti
Brad Holmes
Chris Howarth
Georg Iliev
Will Jääskeläinen
Scott Jamieson
Przemysław Kazimierczak
Rob Lainton
Jay Lynch
Alex McQuade
Marcos Michael
Aaron Mooy
Sean Mountford
Alex Newby
Alan O'Hare
Nathaniel Phillips
Anthony Pinto
Aaron Ramsdale
Jack Sampson
Jan-Ole Sievers
Chris Stokes
André Sødlund
Jason Talbot
Jamie Thomas
Les Thompson
Matt Tubbs
Jake Turner
Kevin Wolze
Luke Woodland
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b The Bolton News: "Bolton re-structure means end of the road for reserve team football"
- ^ "Professional Development League switches to Under-23 format".
- ^ a b "Bolton Wanderers to axe Under-23s team in academy shake-up". 3 March 2020.
- ^ The Bolton News: "Bolton boss Ian Evatt on potential return of second-string football"
- ^ "Bolton boss Ian Evatt explains decision to bring back reserve side | the Bolton News". 2 July 2021.
- ^ The Bolton News: "Ian Evatt reveals Bolton Wanderers will launch B team amid major overhaul"
- ^ BWFC: "'B' Team Plan In Place"
- ^ "Academy Awarded Top Status".
- ^ "UPDATED: Wanderers to save £1 million by downgrading youth academy". The Bolton News. 12 June 2015.