KEITH Hill believes Dennis Politic can go from strength to strength now that he knows where he will be playing his football for the foreseeable future.

The teenage winger scored his fifth goal of the season at Coventry City on Saturday – but sadly it did not prove enough to secure a point as Max Biamou struck in the 90th minute to send Wanderers home disappointed.

Politic’s performance was a bright spot, however, and after signing a contract extension with the club last month, Hill feels the player is now reaping the benefits of his extra security.

“He’s settled, got his contract sorted, and as a football player you can’t always be looking about where you are going to go next,” he told The Bolton News.

“You have to take care of the performances, enjoy learning, don’t just hedge bets. If you do that in football you end up going nowhere.

“Dennis is playing for us now, unconditionally, and it’s brilliant to see because his spontaneous skill is wonderful but he’s also a team player who’s working hard.

“He’ll be a great servant and a valuable asset for the club now.”

Hill had called for the 19-year-old academy graduate to improve his fitness after dropping him from the team in October.

The Bolton boss is happy with the response he got and has now started Politic in the last five games.

Now, he would like to see Ronan Darcy follow a similar path and commit his future to the UniBol.

“We’ll get dips,” he said. “You always do with young players. But Dennis has to continue doing more, not less and expect more. Then he will end up being a good player because he’s a talented boy.

“It’s not hard – the more sacrifices you are prepared to make the more success you get.

“With Dennis, I’d definitely say keep doing more, and with Ronan – sign your contract and trust me and Dave to help them in their footballing careers.”

On the Coventry defeat, Hill added: “We got a decent performance, which gives me encouragement, but marginal defensive decisions have cost us against a very good team.

“You are judged by the decisions you make. Remi (Matthews) has made some fine saves today but some of the decision making on the pitch does baffle me.

“But I’m an average retired football player and we always become better once we retire. You have that mentality that ‘I was playing, I wouldn’t have done that,’ when in fact I probably would have done it, and a lot worse.

“You get nostalgic about how good you were – and the fact is you weren’t very good.”