Bolton Wanderers defender Mark Little is looking forward to a reunion with the man who gave him his professional break almost 11 years ago – Mick McCarthy.

Little was at Wolves under McCarthy when the current Town boss gave the then-18-year-old his debut, and he has a lot to thank the Blues boss for.

“It’s a long way to go for a reunion,” he told The Bolton News.

“But I’m up for it 100 per cent. I only got into Mick McCarthy’s team at Wolves because he wanted big, physical players who’d work as hard as they possibly could.

“Mick gave me my first season as a professional at Wolves and I’ll always be grateful to him and his assistant Terry Connor for that. They taught me a lot.

“They are very good coaches and whatever club they are at, you know they’ll be in and around it. They’ve done a good job at Ipswich.

“Every time I come up against the old gaffer it seems to be really tough game, I suppose it’s the nature of this league.

“With all the travel involved it adds an extra challenge but there’s no use moaning.

“We need a result and in this dressing room we’re okay. We’ll come out fighting even though things are going against us at the moment.”

Wanderers are without a win in the league this season, but manager Phil Parkinson thinks a victory in the Championship is imminent.

“It is still very early in the season but I do believe we can turn this around quickly,” Parkinson added.

“It has been a very, very poor start – we can’t hide away from that.

“But I do believe the lads showed the right spirit against Sheffield United and we have got to keep that tenacity in our play against Ipswich on Saturday.

“I thought that performance was right up there with when we beat Sheffield Wednesday in the Carabao Cup and if we can maintain those levels, I can’t ask any more.