KEVIN Nolan admits that losing his place as a regular in Wanderers' survival campaign left him "sulking like a big baby!"

The young Reebok ace, who took the Premiership by storm last season, has struggled to hit the same high-scoring heights since picking up an injury in the 2-1 home defeat by Liverpool in September.

But on the eve of the return fixture at Anfield, he says he is determined to make up for lost time.

"I've learned a lot from the experience," he confessed. "Last season was just like a stroll, this year's been just stop-start. I want to start strolling again."

Nine goals in 35 Premiership games earned the former Liverpool schoolboy the reputation as one of the country's best young midfield prospects - a status he looked set to enhance when he figured prominently in the back-to-back wins at Aston Villa and at Manchester United, where he scored the only goal. But his troubles began three days later as Emile Heskey's late winner cost Wanderers a heard-earned point.

"During the game I got a groin strain and I've never really recovered," he explained. "Now I just need to get some games in again.

"I need games for psychological as well as a physical reasons just to prove to myself and to the gaffer that I'm over all the problems. It was really just a niggle but it always seemed to be at the back of my mind. I think was sulking a bit too, like a big baby. But I'm over it now.

"There are 10 games left and if I can get eight or nine in, I'll get the goals."

Nolan has had his confidence boosted by winning his first England U21 cap last month but is taking nothing for granted on the selection front as Wanderers search desperately for survival points. Despite the disappointment and frustration at having spent so many games watching from the sidelines, he is doubly determined to repay Allardyce for fast-tracking him from the academy to the senior ranks.

"The gaffer's always handled me very well," he said with genuine gratitude. "He knows me inside out; he knows what I am like and he's stuck by me and let me come round in my own time.

"Now I want to repay him for everything he's done for me over the last two and a half years."

Born and bred a Scouser and still a Liverpool resident, Nolan grabbed the glory in this fixture last season when, having been made captain for the day, he scored the second half equaliser to snatch an unlikely point for the Wanderers.

A repeat performance would be nice but first things first ... "All I'm looking for at the moment is a starting place," he stresses. "Then I can start thinking about getting back to where I was last year."