IT is a club rediscovering the benefits of transparency and making a concerted effort to rebuild damaged relationships with a fanbase and an entire community that had lost all faith in the future.

 

How Ally McCoist, now agonising over the most efficient way to install a water feature in the back garden rather than get the better of Alloa Athletic, must consider the example of his old adversary, Neil Lennon, and feel the slightest pang of envy.

Lennon did his own version of walking away last summer when deciding he could go no further in the manager's role at Celtic. It was a decision that eventually led him to a Bolton Wanderers side floundering at the bottom of the SkyBet Championship following a dreadful run under Dougie Freedman that had delivered just one win from 11 fixtures.

Results, alone, tell you part of the story that has unfolded since. Unbeaten in seven games with just two defeats in 14, the Lancashire club now sit 14th in the table with Lennon having set his sights on making the promotion play-offs.

It is going like a dream on the park. Off it, however, Lennon has placed himself at the centre of a very deliberate strategy to reconnect the club with its people by getting the players and the management team pressing the flesh on the streets.

John McGinlay, the former Scotland striker who became such a hero at the old Burnden Park, has already had Lennon and his assistants, Johan Mjallby and Garry Parker, in the pub he runs in the town of Horwich, northwest of the city centre.

He spent last night interviewing the engaging Northern Irishman for his weekly radio show on local station, Tower FM. It is all part of the PR drive and McGinlay admits it has been a breath of fresh air.

"Results will be the thing that guarantees his success and he has hit the ground running on that front, but Neil has done a big thing in going back to what Owen Coyle did during his time here and taking the club back into the community," he said.

"He is helping bring transparency to the club again. For a while, everything was being done behind closed doors.

"Neil has made a point of getting out and getting in amongst people. The players are also back out attending functions, going into schools.

"Owen was very big on this during his time at Bolton. It was a way of giving something back.

"People want to see the players. It is difficult in this day and age, but the more the current crop get out and meet people and realise what the club means to them, the more they will understand the responsibility that rests with them."

Lennon pays attention to the small things. He has changed the training regime to allow the players to spend Christmas Day with their families before training at night in preparation for a derby match with Blackburn Rovers on Boxing Day.

"There are smiles on people's faces all the way through from the kit man to the groundsman and the players," said the Bolton defender, David Wheater.

"It is back to the family feel we had when Owen Coyle was here.

"I've got nothing against Dougie. He had his own ways, but it's a lot better now.

"Training is brilliant. When someone isn't playing well, he (Lennon) will tell you and I think that's what this place has been missing a little bit."

In McGinlay's opinion, Lennon's footballing success has really centred around taking the shackles off his much-maligned players.

"We were set up not to lose games rather than to win them before Neil came in and the supporters were expecting we would lose," he said. "He has taken the handcuffs off."

McGinlay now expects "three or four" January recruits to come from the SPFL Premiership with Kris Commons of Celtic and David Templeton of Rangers already outed as targets.

"Given the wages and fees involved, it is a market Bolton could be shopping in," he remarked.

It seems more than three-and-a-half years since McCoist and Lennon were nose-to-nose on the touchline at Celtic Park, sparking Holyrood summits and an unworkable Offensive Behaviour at Football law.

The spice of a derby contest clearly still gets his juices flowing, though, with Friday's visit of Blackburn a definite springboard towards his ultimate ambition of taking his new club all the way to the Premier League.

"I'm not frightened of saying we're looking at the top six now," stated Lennon. "The local derby is perfect for a Boxing Day game and we are expecting a big crowd."