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Help and support at Wanderers have made sure the biggest and most challenging year of Jack Iredale’s football career is ending on a positive note.
The Australian defender already had a big task establishing himself in Ian Evatt’s squad following a summer move from Cambridge United.
But settling into a new dressing room, a new town, not to mention a new home with his partner was only half the battle, as back home in Perth, Western Australia, his father, Paul, had also fallen seriously ill.
On the pitch, Iredale has maintained impressive focus, starting 20 games in all competitions so far and pushing himself to the top of a competitive list of left wing-backs. Speaking to The Bolton News, however, he admitted there have been some difficult moments as he juggled professional and family life.
“Looking back on the year it has been my biggest in football,” he said. “I had a great time at Cambridge but then an opportunity came up here and when a club like Bolton is interested, you don’t say no. It was a massive deal to me, I was buzzing to be here and I really want to progress next year as well.
“But it has been tough off the field. My dad has not been well, so it has been tough trying to juggle that.
“I’m an only child and I’m over here. Obviously, you want to be able to support your parents as much as possible. When they are struggling a bit at home, it is hard, but the support the club has given me has been amazing.
“I went straight into the gaffer to tell him what was happening, and he has been incredible with it. The players have helped me out as well and I feel like I did struggle with it but as time went on, I have started to deal with it better.
“Dad has started to get a bit better as well. Mum and him and coping better with it, which has made things a little easier.”
Iredale arrived at Bolton unsure as to where he would be pitched. He had played most of his career as a centre-half or a left-back but had also pushed on to play in midfield during his days at the Abbey Stadium.
He has since held down a regular start at wing-back, pushing past Declan John and Liverpool loanee Owen Beck to play 1,321 minutes in League One, the sixth most for an outfield player in the squad.
“I didn’t know what position I’d play when I came in but to have played as many games as I have, I’m certainly happy with that,” he reflected.
“I could be critical of my own performances, I think any player is and wants to do better, and I am fixing on trying to get better too. I still think there is more to come.”
The same, says Iredale, could be said of Bolton’s performances so far this season. Whilst they have met their target of a top six spot so far, the team still feel they have played slightly within themselves.
“I am struggling to think of one game we have been perfect in,” Iredale said. “You can always find something in every game that you have done well and want to keep doing and also something that you can give more.
“In the last two results that we have had the performances have been good and I think we just need to play better for longer periods of time.
“Against Shrewsbury we were the best team for 75 minutes but in that last 15 we lost the game. Exeter at the weekend we were really good for the first half, first hour maybe, but then the intensity dropped off.
“As a player you have to look at those moments you maybe didn’t do so well and try to improve them.”
Wanderers’ next opponents, Derby County, may well be a good yardstick in a run of games to mid-January which pits them against a handful of teams who are also eyeing Championship football next season.
“I expect Derby to be in and around the play-off zone, especially with the calibre of players that they have got access to,” Iredale said.
“We know it will be a tough game to start off a tough run of fixtures that we have got, so we want to do it the right way.”
Up until this week’s milder weather, Wanderers had struggled to train properly at their Lostock base because of frozen pitches, a far cry from the blue skies and warm sands of Western Australia where Iredale grew up.
“Every single year at this time of year my mates are back home on the beach in 35deg and I am here in sideways rain – but I get to play football for a living and there is nothing I’d rather do,” he laughed.
“I have been over here for a while now but can you ever get used to it? I don’t think you can. If you’re cold, you’re cold.”
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