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George Taft hopes to be moving places with Bolton Wanderers now that he has set down some roots in the town.
The ball-playing defender has moved up to the North West with his family from the Midlands and even took to Twitter recently to see if anyone local could give him a lift with some furniture.
No sooner had he asked for help – than a flurry of Boltonians volunteered their services, giving a proper Lancastrian welcome. Now, the man with the van has plans for promotion, and he feels living in close proximity to the University of Bolton Stadium will make the club feel even more like a home from home.
“I needed to move some stuff about – but I did get sorted quickly, which was fantastic,” he said of his Twitter SOS. “It saved my dad coming up from Leicester, so it worked out well.
“It’s nice in Bolton. I moved up here as early as I could, I like to be settled and focused on football.
“When I was at Cambridge I travelled down there an hour-and-a-half or two hours there, same back, and it can take it out of you.
“Now I’m 15 minutes away, I get a good sleep, good breakfast, and it’s a bonus for me.
“There are lads who are living in the hotel at the moment and we all go out together as a team, which has been great. There’s a good bond there now.”
The former Leicester City man has been part of a squad schooled in the ways of Ian Evatt for the last six weeks.
A unique style of play has deliberately been kept from public view but is now being fine-tuned in the two remaining pre-season friendlies, one of which will be played at Wigan Athletic today. Taft has been impressed by the way Evatt’s blueprint has been presented, both on the training ground and during practice games where detailed analysis often gets relayed on to the pitch as the action continues.
“The set-up here is great,” he said. “There’s a quality staff who video it all, break it down, and we can’t ask for much more. We can nail down certain details and really look at what we have done right and wrong.
“Results are going our way, we’re playing some good football and working it out from the back. Everyone is feeling confident at the minute.
“The good thing about friendlies is that you can go back to the training ground, look at what went wrong and improve when you next get out there without having any points on the line.
“We’ll do that. There’s work to be done but we have been better each time we’ve been out there, I think.”
The game against Accrington on Saturday was another step in the right direction, a comfortable 3-0 win against a League One side, but Taft is not about to allow a growing belief within the squad to turn into over-confidence.
The Whites had to dig in against an increasingly physical Stanley side in the second half and show a side of their game which has not been needed since returning to the pitch at the start of the month.
“With the way we want to play, keeping the ball for long periods of time, switching play, teams are going to get frustrated. We’ve got to stick by our lads and protect ourselves,” said the 6ft 5ins centre-half.
“You can look at it as a positive that we’re frustrating a side like Accrington – but we have to stick together and if we have to mix it up, we will.
“Of course you don’t want injuries at this stage and for us it’s more about getting the game-plan sorted but I think we can handle ourselves.
“We haven’t conceded yet. Billy (Crellin) made some great saves but I felt like we could have scored more than three, so it was a good workout.”
The Bradford City game on September 5 will soon come into view and though it will be played behind closed doors, Taft admits there is a growing excitement about playing 90 minutes where something more is at stake.
“It seems like forever like we played an official match so it has been nice to see the fixture list come out, see when you are travelling away, and all that,” he said.
“It will be strange without the fans. It’ll be more like a pre-season friendly. But it will be extra special when they are able to come back in, especially when you look at how many season tickets we have sold already. It really shows the size of the club and the appetite the fans have got to see us play. It’s crazy.
“The quicker we can get them in the better and if we’re playing well then it will be worth the money for them.”
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The ball-playing defender has moved up to the North West with his family from the Midlands and even took to Twitter recently to see if anyone local could give him a lift with some furniture.
No sooner had he asked for help – than a flurry of Boltonians volunteered their services, giving a proper Lancastrian welcome. Now, the man with the van has plans for promotion, and he feels living in close proximity to the University of Bolton Stadium will make the club feel even more like a home from home.
“I needed to move some stuff about – but I did get sorted quickly, which was fantastic,” he said of his Twitter SOS. “It saved my dad coming up from Leicester, so it worked out well.
“It’s nice in Bolton. I moved up here as early as I could, I like to be settled and focused on football.
“When I was at Cambridge I travelled down there an hour-and-a-half or two hours there, same back, and it can take it out of you.
“Now I’m 15 minutes away, I get a good sleep, good breakfast, and it’s a bonus for me.
“There are lads who are living in the hotel at the moment and we all go out together as a team, which has been great. There’s a good bond there now.”
The former Leicester City man has been part of a squad schooled in the ways of Ian Evatt for the last six weeks.
A unique style of play has deliberately been kept from public view but is now being fine-tuned in the two remaining pre-season friendlies, one of which will be played at Wigan Athletic today. Taft has been impressed by the way Evatt’s blueprint has been presented, both on the training ground and during practice games where detailed analysis often gets relayed on to the pitch as the action continues.
“The set-up here is great,” he said. “There’s a quality staff who video it all, break it down, and we can’t ask for much more. We can nail down certain details and really look at what we have done right and wrong.
“Results are going our way, we’re playing some good football and working it out from the back. Everyone is feeling confident at the minute.
“The good thing about friendlies is that you can go back to the training ground, look at what went wrong and improve when you next get out there without having any points on the line.
“We’ll do that. There’s work to be done but we have been better each time we’ve been out there, I think.”
The game against Accrington on Saturday was another step in the right direction, a comfortable 3-0 win against a League One side, but Taft is not about to allow a growing belief within the squad to turn into over-confidence.
The Whites had to dig in against an increasingly physical Stanley side in the second half and show a side of their game which has not been needed since returning to the pitch at the start of the month.
“With the way we want to play, keeping the ball for long periods of time, switching play, teams are going to get frustrated. We’ve got to stick by our lads and protect ourselves,” said the 6ft 5ins centre-half.
“You can look at it as a positive that we’re frustrating a side like Accrington – but we have to stick together and if we have to mix it up, we will.
“Of course you don’t want injuries at this stage and for us it’s more about getting the game-plan sorted but I think we can handle ourselves.
“We haven’t conceded yet. Billy (Crellin) made some great saves but I felt like we could have scored more than three, so it was a good workout.”
The Bradford City game on September 5 will soon come into view and though it will be played behind closed doors, Taft admits there is a growing excitement about playing 90 minutes where something more is at stake.
“It seems like forever like we played an official match so it has been nice to see the fixture list come out, see when you are travelling away, and all that,” he said.
“It will be strange without the fans. It’ll be more like a pre-season friendly. But it will be extra special when they are able to come back in, especially when you look at how many season tickets we have sold already. It really shows the size of the club and the appetite the fans have got to see us play. It’s crazy.
“The quicker we can get them in the better and if we’re playing well then it will be worth the money for them.”
Source