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Having kept his side – and his emotions – on an even keel throughout the season, the doom-mongers taking aim at Phil Parkinson after losing to Birmingham were perhaps always to be expected.
The manager has never let himself get carried away with victory, nor hit the depths of despair when on the losing side.
On home turf Tuesday’s match – with the hosts unable to break down the 10-man Blues – was a huge opportunity to extend the buffer to the drop-zone missed.
And Parkinson says the reaction, not least the harsh and very public assessment of Ken Anderson, was only to be expected.
For his part, the manager says he is the one to bear the responsibility of lifting his squad from their disappointments. And, having met with the chairman, he appeared keen to stress there is no rift between the two and that the spirit of togetherness remains at the forefront of what he is trying to achieve.
“When you lose at home in a big game, you’re always going to face a certain element of criticism,” he told The Bolton News.
“Everyone is going to get frustrated because it was an important game, we know that but we’ve got to look at the game, we’ve got to analyse what we needed to do better, what we did well then look at the freshness of the squad going into the next game, look at Derby and pick the team which we feel can give us the best chance tomorrow.
“We’ve had meetings along the way this week in terms of how we’re going to play, and we’ll have another meeting tonight at the hotel. But the lads know what they’ve got to do, we as a staff know what we have to do too, we’re looking to respond to a disappointing result on Tuesday.
“Normally criticism comes externally, not internally, but the chairman decided to say what he did and he and I have had a chat about it today.
“It’s a passionate game and he is as desperate as I am to do well and he’s said his bit. I will say my bit to the players this evening about what I think we need to do tomorrow at Derby.
“In the main our supporters have been right with us this season because they’ve understood the situation and the problems we’ve had and they’ve been right with us, that’s very important.
“Since I’ve been here the togetherness between myself and the people above me at the club, the people at the training ground, the players and the supporters is what’s got us into this situation.”
It is close to four decades since Bolton last won an away match in Derby and Parkinson, who watched on as the visitors won 2-1 at the Macron in August, is under no illusions as to the task facing them today.
Derby have stuttered of late, with Monday’s win at Preston North End their first in nine outings.
Now fifth in the table, it seems the only path Gary Rowett’s men have to the Premier League is through the play-offs.
So, while the Rams have their own reasons for wanting the three points, Parkinson will have reasons to believe they can cause something of an upset against a team beaten 4-1 by a Sunderland side in a far more perilous predicament than his own.
“I went down to their game against Sunderland, it was a bit of a strange game,” he revealed.
“In the first 10 minutes it looked like Derby were going to run riot then Sunderland got a deflected goal and went on to deservedly win the game.
“I was able to see the Preston game too, so we’ve had a good look at them. Gary [Rowett] reacted and made several changes and they got themselves up and running again with their first win in eight or nine games. I think the pressure is on them because obviously the expectation levels are very high.
“I expect them to play 4-2-3-1, that’s the system they’ve played for most of the season.
“Will he change the personnel and put some fresh legs in? We don’t know. Will he think ‘well, we’ve had a good win, we haven’t had a win for ages so we’ll go with the same team?’
“We don’t know what they’re going to do, we’ll expect the system to be the same as it has recently.”
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The manager has never let himself get carried away with victory, nor hit the depths of despair when on the losing side.
On home turf Tuesday’s match – with the hosts unable to break down the 10-man Blues – was a huge opportunity to extend the buffer to the drop-zone missed.
And Parkinson says the reaction, not least the harsh and very public assessment of Ken Anderson, was only to be expected.
For his part, the manager says he is the one to bear the responsibility of lifting his squad from their disappointments. And, having met with the chairman, he appeared keen to stress there is no rift between the two and that the spirit of togetherness remains at the forefront of what he is trying to achieve.
“When you lose at home in a big game, you’re always going to face a certain element of criticism,” he told The Bolton News.
“Everyone is going to get frustrated because it was an important game, we know that but we’ve got to look at the game, we’ve got to analyse what we needed to do better, what we did well then look at the freshness of the squad going into the next game, look at Derby and pick the team which we feel can give us the best chance tomorrow.
“We’ve had meetings along the way this week in terms of how we’re going to play, and we’ll have another meeting tonight at the hotel. But the lads know what they’ve got to do, we as a staff know what we have to do too, we’re looking to respond to a disappointing result on Tuesday.
“Normally criticism comes externally, not internally, but the chairman decided to say what he did and he and I have had a chat about it today.
“It’s a passionate game and he is as desperate as I am to do well and he’s said his bit. I will say my bit to the players this evening about what I think we need to do tomorrow at Derby.
“In the main our supporters have been right with us this season because they’ve understood the situation and the problems we’ve had and they’ve been right with us, that’s very important.
“Since I’ve been here the togetherness between myself and the people above me at the club, the people at the training ground, the players and the supporters is what’s got us into this situation.”
It is close to four decades since Bolton last won an away match in Derby and Parkinson, who watched on as the visitors won 2-1 at the Macron in August, is under no illusions as to the task facing them today.
Derby have stuttered of late, with Monday’s win at Preston North End their first in nine outings.
Now fifth in the table, it seems the only path Gary Rowett’s men have to the Premier League is through the play-offs.
So, while the Rams have their own reasons for wanting the three points, Parkinson will have reasons to believe they can cause something of an upset against a team beaten 4-1 by a Sunderland side in a far more perilous predicament than his own.
“I went down to their game against Sunderland, it was a bit of a strange game,” he revealed.
“In the first 10 minutes it looked like Derby were going to run riot then Sunderland got a deflected goal and went on to deservedly win the game.
“I was able to see the Preston game too, so we’ve had a good look at them. Gary [Rowett] reacted and made several changes and they got themselves up and running again with their first win in eight or nine games. I think the pressure is on them because obviously the expectation levels are very high.
“I expect them to play 4-2-3-1, that’s the system they’ve played for most of the season.
“Will he change the personnel and put some fresh legs in? We don’t know. Will he think ‘well, we’ve had a good win, we haven’t had a win for ages so we’ll go with the same team?’
“We don’t know what they’re going to do, we’ll expect the system to be the same as it has recently.”
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