Gary Fraser was once so lonely in his ill-fated spell in England that he took the name of his new club a little too literally, aimlessly wandering around Bolton’s Reebok Stadium at night when he had nothing else to do and no one to spend his significant spare time with.
The solitary existence that the then 18-year-old endured wasn’t to last and he resurfaced in Scotland at Partick Thistle, where an impressive season last term led to the 21-year-old falling in love with football all over again.
Whilst grateful to be where he currently is, the midfielder retains the belief that he is good enough to play in England again, and he is adamant that if the opportunity presents itself again he would now be ready to make the most of it.
He said: “It’s good to be back up the road at the moment, but I think if I got the chance to go back down south again then I’d grab it.
“I was a bit young then, but I think I’ve matured quite a bit and if the chance came up again then I’d definitely jump at it.
“My goal at the moment is to get a run in the team and a good chance to show what I can do over a sustained period. I don’t want to be in and out of the side, I need to go and play.
“Hopefully that will come soon and we’ll see what happens from there.
“It feels good to be back involved with the lads. I’ve been back training fully for three weeks now and on the bench for the last two weeks.
“Obviously it’s frustrating not to get on, you always want to be playing and especially with the way the game at the weekend went, but it’s good to be back in around the team.
“I love playing and it’s horrible being on the sidelines at any time for me, but especially when the team are struggling as they were for a while there.
“It was hard, but hopefully I can get back involved soon. We’ve got a strong midfield, but I feel as if I’m good enough to play.
“It’s up to me to prove that, and I feel as if I have done since I’ve been here, but I just need to wait and try to get a chance and make the most of it when it comes.
“Everybody makes you feel welcome here and it’s a great club to be at, especially when you’re playing.
“I feel as if when I have been playing I’ve been making the most of the chance to impress, although before I was injured there I wasn’t really getting a chance too often.
“Hopefully I’ll maybe get a chance at the weekend.”
After the humbling at the hands of Hearts last weekend, Fraser is desperate to help his side atone for the defeat in a difficult fixture this Saturday at Dens Park.
He said: “Every team is difficult to play against, they are all hard games and most of them can go either way on the day.
“Dundee away is always a really hard one, but if I can even get on the pitch for a decent amount of time then I think I can help the team. I can’t really do much sitting on the bench.
“I’ve asked to go through to the under 20’s game this week, I’ve played a couple over the last few weeks and hopefully I can play.
“I just want to play no matter what. There’s no point in training all week not to play a game, you’d rather get a run out in an actual game no matter what age-group it is.
“On a Saturday morning when you wake up and you know you’re not playing it’s murder. There’s nothing worse than that, I just want to play football, that’s all I want to do.”
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