AARON Morley is back ‘home’ and determined to make the third act of his Bolton Wanderers career a successful one.

It looked for some time as if a loan spell at Wycombe in the first half of the season would lead to the 24-year-old severing ties completely with the Whites.

But circumstances have changed for the midfielder, who now has his sights fixed firmly on helping Bolton realise their own ambitions in League One.

After turning a fresh page with a winning goal against Exeter City earlier this month, Morley believes he is better placed than ever to make a difference at the Toughsheet Stadium.

“I think I’ve got back to my old self,” he told The Bolton News. “At the start of the season I wasn’t in the team, I needed to go out and play every week and that’s what Wycombe gave me.

“I’m not a different player now but I feel back to how I was when I first came here. I think I’m a better player.

“I needed to work on the defensive side of being a midfielder and I got that by playing every week. You can train all you want but you can never recreate what you get in games, you’ll never learn the same.”

Starting afresh is nothing new for Morley at Bolton. He had played briefly in the academy as a young teenager after being picked up from Manchester City but eventually found his way into professional football with Rochdale.

This Wednesday will be the third anniversary of his return as a senior player but Morley’s hiatus with Wycombe has given him a different outlook.

“I only had a year here when I was a kid,” he said. “Playing out of position wasn’t great, I was the right winger, so I didn’t enjoy it that much.

“When I came back the start was amazing. We’d made the play-offs two years in a row, won at Wembley, I loved it.

“I don’t think it’s over yet for this season, though. There is a lot of football still to be played and hopefully I can help us get the right results.

“I came back from Wycombe in a good headspace. We won a lot of games and obviously it wasn’t like that for me at the start of the season, so I’m feeling positive and hopefully I can have an impact on the rest of the lads.”

Morley had drifted to the edges of the Bolton squad by the end of last season, and he watched on from the bench at Wembley for the defeat against Oxford United.

The after-effects of the play-off final have been much-discussed, and the midfielder admits the disappointment may have lingered over the summer before he moved out to Buckinghamshire.

“That game was a chance to go up, to change our lives,” he said. “Obviously everyone was disappointed that it didn't happen and I think we took that a bit into the start of the season.

“Obviously, we won at Leyton Orient in the first game but I think that mentality did creep in a bit.

“But we've just got to clear our minds and hopefully we can pick up the results.

“We have two home games now and nothing is easy, anyone can beat anyone in this league, but we have to try and make this place a bit of a fortress, kick on, and then go to Huddersfield with a good week behind us.”

It isn’t only on the football pitch that life has changed for Morley, and family life is also very different these days with the arrival of his first child, Dottie, last year.

“A little 10-month old, life moves fast,” Morley smiled.

“It does change you a bit. I think you kind of get that dad mode on but I am still the same person, still the same player, and I want to help the team.

“The fans have really helped. When you see everything online and people really wanted me back, then going straight in against Exeter and scoring against them twice in three days for two clubs, it was all a bit weird.

“But I am back now and I want to help the team to be successful.”