Kyle Dempsey is in no doubt about which direction Wanderers are currently heading in.

The tenacious midfielder remains upbeat after another season of progress, albeit one which came to a heart-breaking conclusion in the play-off semi-finals. 

A fifth-placed finish achieved with eight more points than the team had picked up 12 months earlier represented a positive campaign in the eyes of Dempsey, who has proved one of Ian Evatt’s most important assets on the pitch since the turn of the year. 

While the former Gillingham man is disappointed the Whites came up just short at Barnsley and could not book a return journey to Wembley, he maintains the club is in a good place to push on next term.

“Bolton is going forward as a club, with the vision we have got and the football we play,” he told Gills in the Blood Podcast. 

Dempsey has already admitted his performances in his early days at Bolton failed to live up to expectation but he also revealed that the move – completed on January Transfer Deadline Day 2022 – nearly collapsed completely.  

Things could have been very different for the 27-year-old, whose move had been put on hold as Gillingham searched for a new manager. 

“Bolton had come in and it was still up in the air from the chairman whether or not he was going to accept it,” he recalled. 

“I came into training and it was looking like it would be accepted. Neil Harris walked in the building and I got called in to see him. He sat me down and just said, ‘what do you want to do?’ 

“I had been away from (family) for a long time. I am a northern guy and for me to move back up, everything just sort of pointed in the right direction. 

“I told him that I would like to go there and he said, ‘I would like you to stay and be part of this, but I will allow you to do that and wish you all the best’. I thanked him and that’s when I made my way up to Bolton.”