Home
Fraizer Campbell's early strike proved decisive as, despite a dominant performance, Wanderers slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Hull City on Saturday afternoon.
The former Manchester United striker beat Ben Alnwick with just seven minutes on the clock, and while the Whites enjoyed the majority of possession and opportunities during the remainder of the clash, they came up just short come the final whistle.
And speaking following the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered these points...
On his assessment of the game…
We’ve had enough chances to get something from the game today.
I thought the lads adapted well to the system, as we made a lot of changes.
We obviously worked on playing that way during the international break and revisited it yesterday in training.
Some of the approach play was good, as we’ve had more chances today than we’ve had for a lot of weeks.
But as everybody knows, it is about taking those opportunities and we needed someone to put it in the back of the net.
In reality and on the balance of the game, possession and chances created, it probably should have been a 2/3-1 win for us.
But you can see confidence levels are low which is inevitable after getting beat on Wednesday and the criticism that comes with it.
I really thought the lads showed great bravery, in terms of going a goal down at home and we know it was scrappy goal, but we kept playing and trying to implement the way we needed to play today to break Hull down.
We got in some good positions but at the very least, we have to make the goalkeeper come off the pitch and say he has to be fantastic.
We missed too many simple chances.
On potentially missing a bit of luck…
I don’t think it is luck, but I would like a bit of that as well, I just think we can do better.
We’ve got better quality players in and around that final third, that when the opportunities came to make the goalkeeper work, we didn’t do that today.
They don’t miss chances on purpose, but you can see that there is a lack of confidence which is inevitable when you are on a bad run.
But, we are ahead of where we were last season and over-achieving to be in this position.
We know we’re on a difficult run and we need to dig ourselves out of it.
We need to working for each other.
The lads are a terrific group of players, who are a joy to work with.
There was nobody who hid out there on the football pitch today.
Everybody kept showing for the ball and trying to do the right things.
Were we always great and decision making spot on? Probably not but there was nobody hiding.
For that, I am very proud of them.
On Erhun Oztumer being an example of not hiding away…
With Ozzy, it didn’t go well for him in front of goal but he kept showing for the ball.
He typified what I just said and with him, we know his has that quality in front of goal.
He has a record of scoring goals and we see it every day in training.
Credit to him because he didn’t let his head drop and kept going out there.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be but on another day, he could have had a hattrick.
On some positive individual performances…
I thought the body language of the players, in terms of when the chips are down which they are, was excellent.
The crowd were good I thought, getting behind the lads even when they scored, they stayed with us.
I thought Doidgey and Clayton worked well together, as well as Joe Williams probably having one of his best games.
There were some other good performances around the pitch.
But, football is about taking your chances when they come and we didn’t do that today.
On focus turning to Aston Villa on Friday…
We just have to regroup and it’ll turn.
We had a terrible start last year and we found a way to turn it around and get ourselves going.
This is probably our worst run since then, although we had some tough times last year.
Like I always said and in my first press conference at this club, that what is important is that everybody at Bolton stays together.
Everybody at the club, who works for them or supports them, needs to stick together because that is the only way.
We’re not a club who has great resources and are going to compete with the top clubs in this division.
But what we have got, is a mentality that we stick together and that is exactly what we have done.
I am very proud of the lads today, as it is very difficult playing when you have had a bad defeat and face criticism when you’re 1-0 down at home.
We stuck at it and kept going to the end.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
The former Manchester United striker beat Ben Alnwick with just seven minutes on the clock, and while the Whites enjoyed the majority of possession and opportunities during the remainder of the clash, they came up just short come the final whistle.
And speaking following the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered these points...
On his assessment of the game…
We’ve had enough chances to get something from the game today.
I thought the lads adapted well to the system, as we made a lot of changes.
We obviously worked on playing that way during the international break and revisited it yesterday in training.
Some of the approach play was good, as we’ve had more chances today than we’ve had for a lot of weeks.
But as everybody knows, it is about taking those opportunities and we needed someone to put it in the back of the net.
In reality and on the balance of the game, possession and chances created, it probably should have been a 2/3-1 win for us.
But you can see confidence levels are low which is inevitable after getting beat on Wednesday and the criticism that comes with it.
I really thought the lads showed great bravery, in terms of going a goal down at home and we know it was scrappy goal, but we kept playing and trying to implement the way we needed to play today to break Hull down.
We got in some good positions but at the very least, we have to make the goalkeeper come off the pitch and say he has to be fantastic.
We missed too many simple chances.
On potentially missing a bit of luck…
I don’t think it is luck, but I would like a bit of that as well, I just think we can do better.
We’ve got better quality players in and around that final third, that when the opportunities came to make the goalkeeper work, we didn’t do that today.
They don’t miss chances on purpose, but you can see that there is a lack of confidence which is inevitable when you are on a bad run.
But, we are ahead of where we were last season and over-achieving to be in this position.
We know we’re on a difficult run and we need to dig ourselves out of it.
We need to working for each other.
The lads are a terrific group of players, who are a joy to work with.
There was nobody who hid out there on the football pitch today.
Everybody kept showing for the ball and trying to do the right things.
Were we always great and decision making spot on? Probably not but there was nobody hiding.
For that, I am very proud of them.
On Erhun Oztumer being an example of not hiding away…
With Ozzy, it didn’t go well for him in front of goal but he kept showing for the ball.
He typified what I just said and with him, we know his has that quality in front of goal.
He has a record of scoring goals and we see it every day in training.
Credit to him because he didn’t let his head drop and kept going out there.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be but on another day, he could have had a hattrick.
On some positive individual performances…
I thought the body language of the players, in terms of when the chips are down which they are, was excellent.
The crowd were good I thought, getting behind the lads even when they scored, they stayed with us.
I thought Doidgey and Clayton worked well together, as well as Joe Williams probably having one of his best games.
There were some other good performances around the pitch.
But, football is about taking your chances when they come and we didn’t do that today.
On focus turning to Aston Villa on Friday…
We just have to regroup and it’ll turn.
We had a terrible start last year and we found a way to turn it around and get ourselves going.
This is probably our worst run since then, although we had some tough times last year.
Like I always said and in my first press conference at this club, that what is important is that everybody at Bolton stays together.
Everybody at the club, who works for them or supports them, needs to stick together because that is the only way.
We’re not a club who has great resources and are going to compete with the top clubs in this division.
But what we have got, is a mentality that we stick together and that is exactly what we have done.
I am very proud of the lads today, as it is very difficult playing when you have had a bad defeat and face criticism when you’re 1-0 down at home.
We stuck at it and kept going to the end.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
