Home
Wanderers go into tomorrow’s high-pressured derby against Wigan Athletic with one key advantage, claims Phil Parkinson.
While the formbook is unquestionably against the Whites, who have won just once in their last 15 games, the team’s experience of playing with the odds stacked against them will stand in their favour, says the manager.
Not for the first time in his 124-game tenure, tension is mounting for Parkinson ahead of kick-off in the first meeting between Bolton and Wigan since 2015.
Parkinson is insistent he can survive the worst run of results in his spell in charge of Wanderers but recognises there will be a lot riding on tomorrow’s outcome.
“We know it’s a big game for us,” he told The Bolton News. “I think the lads who have been with us for a while are used to playing under pressure.
"They played under it constantly in the year we went up, people kept writing us off and we proved them wrong, and then last year people wrote us off at the start, we had a good run then people wrote us off again. But we produced when it really mattered.
“The lads are used to dealing with it. Football becomes pressure and we know we will have to deal with what comes our way at the weekend.”
Parkinson has also come through difficult periods before in his time at Bolton, although the club’s run over the last 15 games does represent the worst spell under his management.
Last season, Wanderers went on a run of one win in 12, and incredibly they are still three points ahead of their total after 19 games last season.
It won’t come as much solace to the beleaguered boss, but in the last 30 years there have been three of his predecessors who have presided over similar runs.
During Roy McFarland and Colin Todd’s ill-fated run as joint managers in the Premier League Bolton went on a run of one win in 19 between August 1995 and January 1996.
At the height of Wanderers financial problems in 2015, Neil Lennon presided over a run of one win in 17, while the Northern Irishman also saw the start of a dreadful spell at the end of that campaign – seen out by the caretaker management team of Jimmy Phillips and Peter Reid – of one win in 16.
It is also wrong to say this is the Parkinson’s worst sequence of results in Parkinson’s managerial career. Between October 2013 and February 2014, his Bradford City side went on a barren spell of one win in 21 matches, ended with a 1-0 home victory against Port Vale. The following season he led the Bantams to the League One play-offs.
Wanderers’ spirits may also be lifted with the fact Wigan’s away form has been poor of late. Paul Cook’s side have lost their last seven games away from the DW Stadium.
Source
While the formbook is unquestionably against the Whites, who have won just once in their last 15 games, the team’s experience of playing with the odds stacked against them will stand in their favour, says the manager.
Not for the first time in his 124-game tenure, tension is mounting for Parkinson ahead of kick-off in the first meeting between Bolton and Wigan since 2015.
Parkinson is insistent he can survive the worst run of results in his spell in charge of Wanderers but recognises there will be a lot riding on tomorrow’s outcome.
“We know it’s a big game for us,” he told The Bolton News. “I think the lads who have been with us for a while are used to playing under pressure.
"They played under it constantly in the year we went up, people kept writing us off and we proved them wrong, and then last year people wrote us off at the start, we had a good run then people wrote us off again. But we produced when it really mattered.
“The lads are used to dealing with it. Football becomes pressure and we know we will have to deal with what comes our way at the weekend.”
Parkinson has also come through difficult periods before in his time at Bolton, although the club’s run over the last 15 games does represent the worst spell under his management.
Last season, Wanderers went on a run of one win in 12, and incredibly they are still three points ahead of their total after 19 games last season.
It won’t come as much solace to the beleaguered boss, but in the last 30 years there have been three of his predecessors who have presided over similar runs.
During Roy McFarland and Colin Todd’s ill-fated run as joint managers in the Premier League Bolton went on a run of one win in 19 between August 1995 and January 1996.
At the height of Wanderers financial problems in 2015, Neil Lennon presided over a run of one win in 17, while the Northern Irishman also saw the start of a dreadful spell at the end of that campaign – seen out by the caretaker management team of Jimmy Phillips and Peter Reid – of one win in 16.
It is also wrong to say this is the Parkinson’s worst sequence of results in Parkinson’s managerial career. Between October 2013 and February 2014, his Bradford City side went on a barren spell of one win in 21 matches, ended with a 1-0 home victory against Port Vale. The following season he led the Bantams to the League One play-offs.
Wanderers’ spirits may also be lifted with the fact Wigan’s away form has been poor of late. Paul Cook’s side have lost their last seven games away from the DW Stadium.
Source
