IAN Evatt reckons George Thomason is passing his pre-season test with Wanderers.

The Bolton boss threw down a gauntlet to his squad in May to show they can be part of a squad that challenges for a top two spot in League One.

And three friendlies into the summer schedule, the 22-year-old has caught the eye as one of the Whites in-form players.

Wanderers are expected to sign more midfielders before the close of the transfer window but Evatt has been impressed by Thomason’s form since he returned at the start of the month.

“We are moving really quickly as a football club, certainly in the three years I have been in charge,” he told The Bolton News. “From the bottom of League Two with no squad to speak of to now being at the top end of League One and having business to do in every transfer window since then.

“The players who have been here a while now have to continually challenge themselves to keep up with this football club.

“George was set that challenge at the end of last season – all of them were, in fact – and it looks like once again he has come back and pushed on.

“He has been dominating training sessions for a while. And my message to him was to start taking those big performances in training matches and start putting them into games.

“I think what we saw there, he did that.”

Thomason missed a chunk of last season after dislocating his knee in December but returned ahead of schedule and started four more games in April and May, including the play-off semi-final second leg.

“Right now, post-injury, this is probably the best I have been playing and feeling,” the young midfielder said.

“It is not so much a clean slate coming back into pre-season because everyone has a point to prove but you have that little break and time to re-energise. The games in pre-season are a great chance to prove you just want to be a positive influence.”

Wanderers remain undefeated in pre-season but go to Salford City on Saturday hoping to improve on a sluggish performance at Chester.

Thomason is confident things will peak at the right time.

“I think we are starting to get more ideas which we have been working on in training and more of the lads are getting minutes on the pitch, which is obviously vital,” he said.

“We have got some league teams coming up now, which will be a better test.

“Obviously there are always things we can improve on – in the final third and defensively – so we’ll start to sharpen those things up and I think we can be positive for the campaign ahead.”