Luke Bolton may have endured a rather slow start to life at Wrexham but the former Salford City man made his impact felt against Grimsby Town on Saturday afternoon.
Wrexham headed on the road again on Saturday afternoon and that has been cause for concern at times this season.
The away record this term has been patchy whereas few have been coming to the STōK Cae Ras and leaving with a positive result.
That has somewhat flipped though as an away win at Morecambe was followed up by taking just one point at home to Harrogate Town and Tranmere Rovers.
Saturday’s trip to Grimsby somewhat continued that trend as Wrexham blew the Mariners away with a stunning first-half performance.
Andy Cannon rattled home the opener with a powerful long-range strike before adding a second from a sensational counter-attack.
Paul Mullin swivelled and volleyed home number three in style to effectively end the game as a contest, with a late Grimsby consolation hardly taking the shine off a superb away win.
This is exactly what Phil Parkinson needed after a couple of frustrating home results and he was impressed with the display of Luke Bolton…
Phil Parkinson on Luke Bolton
Bolton joined Wrexham from Salford City back in January and arrived with a decent reputation as an attack-minded wing back.
The former Manchester City talent bagged five goals in 20 League Two games this season before heading to Wrexham.
Bolton has mostly served as competition for Ryan Barnett but an injury to Barnett handed Bolton a chance to shine against Grimsby.
The 24-year-old recorded one key pass, two dribbles, three tackles, two interceptions and one clearance, turning in a strong display.
Boss Parkinson has now moved to praise Bolton following Saturday’s impressive away win.
Speaking on Wrexham’s official YouTube channel, Parkinson suggested that Bolton was ‘really good’ against Grimsby.
Parkinson feels that Bolton has really started to feel at home in the Wrexham squad and turned in an ‘outstanding’ week of training before shining at Blundell Park.
“Bolts was really good, he’s settled in over the last few weeks,” said Parkinson. “You can just see he’s getting more comfortable in the environment with us and I thought this week was an outstanding week on the training pitch for Luke and he took it into today’s performance,” he added.
Barnett’s return date is unknown at this stage, so Bolton has a real chance to get his Wrexham career kickstarted in style.
Bolton now has his third start under his belt and more are surely on the way in the coming weeks, giving him a chance to help Wrexham secure promotion to League One.