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Phil Parkinson says he will take criticism for Wanderers’ late-season dip on the chin but urged his team to keep their eyes on the survival prize.
One point from a possible 18 since the international break has pushed the Whites to the brink of the bottom three, and victory for Barnsley tonight at Nottingham Forest could tip them over the edge.
Upcoming games against Burton Albion, who also have safety aspirations, and Nottingham Forest have now become must-win affairs, but will be played against a mood of mounting concern among the Bolton supporters.
Parkinson bore the brunt of fans’ anger on Saturday for the manner of his team’s performance in defeat against Wolves. But as he started the difficult task of picking players up and restoring confidence for this weekend’s trip to the Pirelli Stadium, the Whites boss hopes faith is not irreparably damaged.
“When you get beat there is going to be criticism, fingers pointed, people saying ‘I’d have done this or picked him’ – that’s football, of course there will be that,” he told The Bolton News. “I’ll have to deal with that. But as a club we have to concentrate on what we have to do to win the last couple of games, nothing more.
“We set ourselves up with the team we felt had the best chance against Wolves but when you cannot sustain concentration levels against a team with quality, you are asking for trouble.
“Nothing changes at Burton. We would have gone there looking to win the game no matter what.
“Everyone has to be strong, staff, players, fans – because regardless of what goes on we need that result.”
Asked what has gone wrong since the international break, when victory over Aston Villa put them six points clear of the bottom three, Parkinson was at a loss to pinpoint the problem.
“It’s difficult to explain,” he said. “Obviously we had some disruption after the break when Karl and Darren got injured – that knocked us a bit and we lost our way.
“Whatever has gone wrong, we just have to concentrate on these last two games.”
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One point from a possible 18 since the international break has pushed the Whites to the brink of the bottom three, and victory for Barnsley tonight at Nottingham Forest could tip them over the edge.
Upcoming games against Burton Albion, who also have safety aspirations, and Nottingham Forest have now become must-win affairs, but will be played against a mood of mounting concern among the Bolton supporters.
Parkinson bore the brunt of fans’ anger on Saturday for the manner of his team’s performance in defeat against Wolves. But as he started the difficult task of picking players up and restoring confidence for this weekend’s trip to the Pirelli Stadium, the Whites boss hopes faith is not irreparably damaged.
“When you get beat there is going to be criticism, fingers pointed, people saying ‘I’d have done this or picked him’ – that’s football, of course there will be that,” he told The Bolton News. “I’ll have to deal with that. But as a club we have to concentrate on what we have to do to win the last couple of games, nothing more.
“We set ourselves up with the team we felt had the best chance against Wolves but when you cannot sustain concentration levels against a team with quality, you are asking for trouble.
“Nothing changes at Burton. We would have gone there looking to win the game no matter what.
“Everyone has to be strong, staff, players, fans – because regardless of what goes on we need that result.”
Asked what has gone wrong since the international break, when victory over Aston Villa put them six points clear of the bottom three, Parkinson was at a loss to pinpoint the problem.
“It’s difficult to explain,” he said. “Obviously we had some disruption after the break when Karl and Darren got injured – that knocked us a bit and we lost our way.
“Whatever has gone wrong, we just have to concentrate on these last two games.”
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