NICKY Hunt is hoping Steve McClaren's new broom can sweep him back into the England reckoning.

The Wanderers right-back, earmarked as a potential successor to Gary Neville when he was a regular with the Under 21s before his progress was halted by a broken leg, has been encouraged to see McClaren name young lions Jermain Defoe, Darren Bent and Dean Ashton in his first international squad.

Now, after making a speedy return from injury to face AZ Alkmaar in Saturday's final Premiership warm-up game, the Reebok academy graduate believes a good season with Wanderers can put his star back in the ascendancy.

"The bread and butter is here at Bolton," Hunt said, refusing to get too carried away with England talk. "If I don't do it here, I'm never going to do it for England.

"But obviously Steve McClaren is a fresh coach and bringing in fresh players tells you that there is a chance for everyone.

"Dean Ashton and Darren Bent did very well last season. Darren, being the top English scorer in the Premiership, was very unfortunate not to go to the World Cup.

"With Nigel Reo-Coker, who is a good mate of mine, also coming through, there's going to be a big push from everyone involved now if it's right that the manager has said he is looking at bringing players through from the Under 21s, which hasn't been the case in the last few seasons.

"That's a great incentive for everyone."

Hunt's unexpected appearance for a 60-minute runout against Alkmaar, just two weeks after straining knee ligaments in the friendly at Derby, gave Sam Allardyce a welcome boost ahead of Saturday's Premiership opener against Spurs.

And things could get even better today if Kevin Davies, whose leadership of the attack has been so pivotal for Wanderers over the last three seasons, passes a fitness test on the ankle injury that has kept him out of the last four friendlies.

With Henrik Pedersen hoping to be cleared to return to training after recovering from an Achilles operation, the casualty list, which was nearing crisis point a week ago, is beginning to look much healthier.

Not surprisingly, Allardyce was relieved to suffer no further injury blows in the Alkmaar game. In fact he was delighted to see Ivan Campo and Stelios confirm their fitness after recent problems.

Nevertheless, Wanderers will have to start the season without Abdoulaye Faye and Joey O'Brien, who both have knee injuries, and Quinton Fortune, who has a slight groin problem, in addition to Pedersen and long-term absentee, Ricardo Gardner.

The concerns of recent weeks were highlighted for the first time on home soil on Saturday when the patched-up Wanderers conceded three goals for the third time in five days against foreign opposition.

American sprinter, Johann Smith, scored his first goal in senior company to put Wanderers back on terms within two minutes of former Rangers striker Shota Arveladze putting Alkmaar in front. But Stijn Schaars and Julian Jenner grabbed second half goals for the Dutch UEFA Cup entrants to leave Wanderers with a miserable record of one draw and five defeats in their pre-season games.

"I don't like pre-season matches anyway," Allardyce said, refusing to read anything into the results.

"I always think it breeds complacency if you go through a pre-season having won all your matches."

Wanderers: Jaaskelainen (Walker at h-t); Hunt (Charlesworth 63), Fojut, Meite (Augustyn 65), Campo; Nolan (Borgetti 63), Speed (Basham 65), Stelios; Smith, Diouf, Wolfe (Sissons at h-t).

Wanderers 1 AZ Alkmaar 3