MARK Fish refuses to even contemplate life outside the Premiership.

The South African defender, who quit the glamour of Lazio in Italy's Serie A to add experience in England's top flight to his already impressive CV, says he has not regretted his decision to join Wanderers.

Asked if he would be happy to stay, if the club was relegated, Fish replied: "I'll stay and pitch in but that's not going to happen. I'm positive about that, so there's really no point in answering the question."

Sidetracked by international duties since Wanderers defeat at Newcastle on January 17, Fish celebrated his return in Saturday's crucial 3-2 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

He enjoyed the victory, which he is confident will spark the recovery that will ultimately lift Wanderers away from the relegation zone.

"I came here with the ambition of trying to help Bolton stay in the Premier League and that's what I still intend to do," he said.

"I love playing in front of the fans at the Reebok Stadium. I enjoy hearing their support for me. It's very encouraging and I obviously want to do well for them and for the club, who have been very lenient and allowed me to travel back and forth to play for my country.

"They understand how important it is for South Africa in their preparations for the World Cup and I am grateful to them for that.

"Now I want to concentrate on helping the team get more wins. We needed that win on Saturday and hopefully we can now have a bit of a run like Barnsley are enjoying at the moment."

Despite their lack of experience at the highest level and the fact that they are currently going through a transition period, Fish believes South Africa can approach the World Cup Finals with confidence.

A relatively young side in every sense, they have just changed coaches for the second time in three months - Phillipe Troussier taking over after Jono Somo led the 'Bafana Bafana', as they are known, to the final of the African Nations Cup. Somo had been appointed in a caretaker capacity after Clive Barker, their manager for three years and the man who steered them through the World Cup qualifying campaign, quit just before Christmas.

Fish doesn't read much into their failure to retain the Nations Cup, preferring to view it as good preparation for the major test of their international capabilities in in France this summer.

"The African Nations was a great experince," says the Bolton man. "Not a lot of South Africans gave us a chance because we'd changed the team and the coach just before the tournament.

"But reaching the final (they lost 2-1 to Egypt) surpassed our expectations and now we can really look forward with confidence to the World Cup and beyond.

"Changing the coach again is probably going to set us back again but we have a lot of good young players who have come through the African Nations Cup and we are determined to become a strong nation in African and World football - and not just in the short term but over 20 or 30 years.

"We got a terrific reception when we got back to South Africa because they realised how well we had done."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.