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Phil Parkinson has faith that his shot-shy attack can do the business in the Championship.
Goals have been in short supply this season for Wanderers, who have managed just 12 in their opening 18 games.
Nowhere has the drought been felt more than up front, where Christian Doidge remains the only player to find the back of the net since mid-September.
Welshman Doidge has struggled to hold down a regular place in the line-up since he swapped League Two Forest Green for the North West on deadline day, starting just once since he opened his account against Rotherham United on October 20.
It has been a similarly frustrating time for the other two new arrivals in the striking department.
Josh Magennis, signed from League One Charlton Athletic in the summer, scored four times in the opening months but the Northern Ireland international has since found the going much tougher.
Likewise Clayton Donaldson, the only one of Parkinson’s attacking triumvirate with significant Championship experience, who has yet to score for his new club since signing on a free transfer in the summer.
Parkinson takes his side to Sheffield Wednesday tonight looking to build on the point earned at Millwall and hoping the barren run ended by Mark Beevers’ header at The Den will not return.
But the Wanderers boss refuses to be critical of his front men as they feel their way back to form.
“I just want them to keep getting in the right positions, that’s the key,” he told The Bolton News.
“They need to make the right runs in the box, keep contributing to the general play as they have been doing, and the goals will come, no doubt about it.”
Had Wanderers found a second goal at Millwall on Saturday, Parkinson feels he would have been reflecting on the first win since September too.
The switch to 4-3-3 worked well early in the game at The Den but meant Erhun Oztumer dropped out of the reckoning.
"It's a system we used early on in the season and I think we switched after about four or five weeks," he said. "We got Ozzy in the team at that point and he more suits the 4-2-3-1.
"We have got the players to play either system but I think it worked quite well at Millwall. We created plenty of chances and the energy in the players was excellent, we just couldn't find that second goal."
All around the Championship, bigger budgets and coaching set-ups often see specialist striker coaches brought in to work with the front men.
It is not an idea which particularly appeals to Parkinson, who reckons there is enough expertise in his team to guide the players through their current problems.
“It isn’t something we have looked at, we’ve got myself, Steve (Parkin) and Julian Darby and we’re working hard with the players. It isn’t a budget thing – it’s just not for us.”
Wanderers’ goal-scoring issues have thrown a different light on the decision to release Adam Le Fondre from his contract in September to complete a move to FC Sydney.
The move came as a bolt out of the blue for fans and manager alike – but Parkinson is reluctant to look back with regret.
“That situation is exactly this – Adam had a good pre-season and out of the blue, completely out of the blue he said he’d been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “Adam said his family really wanted to go abroad and would I let him go?
“I said to the chairman he wanted to leave and that it would be difficult to stand in his way. He had been a good lad for us and we respected that decision.
“I think it’s always difficult to say no in that situation.
“Adam wasn’t a regular starter last season in the team. But it was more a case of him not wanting to wait another year, he’d be in the mid-30s bracket, and that opportunity might not come around again.
“It’s raking over old ground a bit. But he certainly wasn’t a player we pulled in and said ‘hey, we’ve had a call from Australia, do you fancy it?’ Myself and Ken literally knew nothing about it at all.
"I got to know his agent over that couple of days and he said the move had come about over that weekend. It all hinged on the fact his family wanted the move."
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