"I feel I have been cryogenically frozen for a year but once I'm defrosted I'll be alright again," said former Republic of Ireland midfielder Gareth Farrelly last season when he couldn't get a first team game for love nor money at Everton.
There was still no sign of a thaw in the 24-year-old's career up until last week, having only played in one game for Everton this season (a League Cup match) so we were mightily relieved to see him join Bolton on a month's loan, with a view to a possible £500,000 transfer.
Ironically Bolton are the team who were relegated two seasons ago by Farrelly's last-day winner for Everton but their supporters might look upon him in a more favourable light after his debut for the club yesterday when, after 82 seconds, he scored with a pile-driver from 25 yards in a 2-1 win at Sheffield United. "Farrelly boosted the number of English players in the Bolton side to three," said Soccernet's report on the game. Oi - the recipient of our Player of the Week award was born in Dublin and played for Home Farm.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)