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Phil Parkinson congratulated a “collective effort” at Wanderers so far in 2016 but warned success will not come easy in the New Year.
Just 28 competitive games and just shy of 200 days into his tenure at the Macron, and it already seems like the manager has achieved a great deal.
A solid, experienced squad sits third in the table with realistic dreams of promotion, a far cry from the team which meekly surrendered its Championship status back in May.
Players’ names appear in terrace chants rather than banners and the town is – almost – back talking about what is happening on the pitch, rather than what is occurring in the boardroom.
Leaving aside issues of ownership and finance, as most fans long to do, there is plenty of reason for optimism, for which Parkinson and the staff he brought with him from Bradford City back in June deserve due credit.
A return to the second tier is still the aim. And one might suggest that in the club’s current financial situation is it bordering on a necessity.
But Parkinson is not pushing that message too hard as he goes into his first full year in charge of the Whites, and has paid tribute to the staff and players around him for helping progress this far.
“The lads and the staff have been very driven,” he told The Bolton News. “I play my part but it only works if everyone else is doing their bit and you can see every day in training the attitude and the determination to turn this club around has been great.
“I think there is a lot of work still to be done but I think we’re starting to put the pride back into wearing the Bolton shirt. It has been a collective effort.
“That has been the message from day one. The players have to appreciate what they have here – a club with an incredible rich history and a great support.
“I think they are doing that, and I think one of the things which has started to happen now is that the supporters are relating to the club again, and to the players as well. That might have fallen away a bit in the past.”
Parkinson was thankfully not around to see the worst of last season’s fall-out, as anger at the club’s financial mismanagement mixed with a squad shorn completely of self-belief, creating a horribly inevitable journey towards the drop.
Thanks to the efforts of Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth at the start of the year, Wanderers were spared the shame of administration, potentially more severe job losses and the sale of more assets.
But as the club started to rebuild itself financially, the job of picking up spirits among the playing and coaching staff fell to the man they appointed to succeed Neil Lennon on a permanent basis.
Parkinson has not strayed significantly from the blueprint he had used at Bradford, building from the back and making sure – if nothing else – that his team never lacks in work-rate.
“When we came in we saw confidence was down,” he said. “People had been through a lot, you maybe hadn’t had a lot of good things to write about Bolton Wanderers for quite some time.
“We felt we had to earn back a little bit of respect. We needed to make sure, first and foremost, there was a work ethic in the team again.
“We had to make the players understand how hard it is to win games of football. You have to work yourself in the ground no matter what division you are playing in, or how good a footballer you are. That’s the first step.
“Dividing lines are tight in this division. The only way you can ensure you fall the right side of those lines more often than not is with hard work.
“If nothing else, that is what I have tried to drum into the players from day one.”
Wanderers boast a playing budget five or six times the size of some of their rivals but one swollen by the financial excesses of the previous regime.
They remain, at time of writing, in a transfer embargo and have issues to solve at board level which have often threatened to eclipse the good work Parkinson has already done.
The manager continues to focus his efforts on the pitch.
“We have spoken as a team about keeping our minds on what we can affect,” he added. “We all hope there will be a quick resolution to it all.”
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Just 28 competitive games and just shy of 200 days into his tenure at the Macron, and it already seems like the manager has achieved a great deal.
A solid, experienced squad sits third in the table with realistic dreams of promotion, a far cry from the team which meekly surrendered its Championship status back in May.
Players’ names appear in terrace chants rather than banners and the town is – almost – back talking about what is happening on the pitch, rather than what is occurring in the boardroom.
Leaving aside issues of ownership and finance, as most fans long to do, there is plenty of reason for optimism, for which Parkinson and the staff he brought with him from Bradford City back in June deserve due credit.
A return to the second tier is still the aim. And one might suggest that in the club’s current financial situation is it bordering on a necessity.
But Parkinson is not pushing that message too hard as he goes into his first full year in charge of the Whites, and has paid tribute to the staff and players around him for helping progress this far.
“The lads and the staff have been very driven,” he told The Bolton News. “I play my part but it only works if everyone else is doing their bit and you can see every day in training the attitude and the determination to turn this club around has been great.
“I think there is a lot of work still to be done but I think we’re starting to put the pride back into wearing the Bolton shirt. It has been a collective effort.
“That has been the message from day one. The players have to appreciate what they have here – a club with an incredible rich history and a great support.
“I think they are doing that, and I think one of the things which has started to happen now is that the supporters are relating to the club again, and to the players as well. That might have fallen away a bit in the past.”
Parkinson was thankfully not around to see the worst of last season’s fall-out, as anger at the club’s financial mismanagement mixed with a squad shorn completely of self-belief, creating a horribly inevitable journey towards the drop.
Thanks to the efforts of Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth at the start of the year, Wanderers were spared the shame of administration, potentially more severe job losses and the sale of more assets.
But as the club started to rebuild itself financially, the job of picking up spirits among the playing and coaching staff fell to the man they appointed to succeed Neil Lennon on a permanent basis.
Parkinson has not strayed significantly from the blueprint he had used at Bradford, building from the back and making sure – if nothing else – that his team never lacks in work-rate.
“When we came in we saw confidence was down,” he said. “People had been through a lot, you maybe hadn’t had a lot of good things to write about Bolton Wanderers for quite some time.
“We felt we had to earn back a little bit of respect. We needed to make sure, first and foremost, there was a work ethic in the team again.
“We had to make the players understand how hard it is to win games of football. You have to work yourself in the ground no matter what division you are playing in, or how good a footballer you are. That’s the first step.
“Dividing lines are tight in this division. The only way you can ensure you fall the right side of those lines more often than not is with hard work.
“If nothing else, that is what I have tried to drum into the players from day one.”
Wanderers boast a playing budget five or six times the size of some of their rivals but one swollen by the financial excesses of the previous regime.
They remain, at time of writing, in a transfer embargo and have issues to solve at board level which have often threatened to eclipse the good work Parkinson has already done.
The manager continues to focus his efforts on the pitch.
“We have spoken as a team about keeping our minds on what we can affect,” he added. “We all hope there will be a quick resolution to it all.”
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