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Two long, hard weeks have passed since Bolton were humbled in a 5-2 defeat at Wigan, but the determination to banish those unhappy memories has not dimmed.
To put things mildly, it has been a fortnight in which morale has peaked and troughed, with new ownership still nervously anticipated after previous talks with potential buyers finally broke down.
Players, coaches and non-football staff members have been anxiously waiting for good news from the club’s hierarchy, with wages late to hit their accounts yet again.
Phil Parkinson admits the mood around Lostock was far from buoyant as the squad reported for training ahead of the international break. And, ahead of today’s trip to QPR, he is adamant the Wanderers faithful will see a much-improved showing.
“We said to the lads people have written us off and with the points gap you can understand that,” he said. “But we’ve got to concentrate on keeping our credibility as a group because a lot of players are out of contract in the summer and a lot of players are fighting for new ones, they’re basically writing their own CV over the next eight games.
“We’ve got to make sure we do everything we can to keep our standards high on the pitch and the training ground. We’ve spoken about what we feel we need to do in the last eight games, starting with QPR.
“We’ve spoken about the consistency of our performances, within a game and from game to game, and we’re not going to get a result at QPR if we come away from the game and four or five players have been well below par.
“In order to win a football game at Championship level everybody has to be at the top end of their game and that’s what we’ll be looking for, putting everything else to one side and making sure the individual performance is where it needs to be in order for us to get a result.”
Parkinson was visibly angered by the defensive showing at the JD Stadium as hosts Wigan ran riot. Only time will tell this afternoon whether those two weeks’ work on the training ground has ironed out the deficiencies from the derby defeat.
“We understand we can only look back at the last game – defensively we weren’t strong enough,” he added. “We had more opportunities to score than we’ve had for a while, but the very basic requirements on a football pitch – defending properly, heading it clear of our box when it needs to be cleared – we’ve got to make sure we get that back in place. Every team at every level of football is built on the very basics on a football pitch and people play from within that structure.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re stronger in those areas at Loftus Road.”
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To put things mildly, it has been a fortnight in which morale has peaked and troughed, with new ownership still nervously anticipated after previous talks with potential buyers finally broke down.
Players, coaches and non-football staff members have been anxiously waiting for good news from the club’s hierarchy, with wages late to hit their accounts yet again.
Phil Parkinson admits the mood around Lostock was far from buoyant as the squad reported for training ahead of the international break. And, ahead of today’s trip to QPR, he is adamant the Wanderers faithful will see a much-improved showing.
“We said to the lads people have written us off and with the points gap you can understand that,” he said. “But we’ve got to concentrate on keeping our credibility as a group because a lot of players are out of contract in the summer and a lot of players are fighting for new ones, they’re basically writing their own CV over the next eight games.
“We’ve got to make sure we do everything we can to keep our standards high on the pitch and the training ground. We’ve spoken about what we feel we need to do in the last eight games, starting with QPR.
“We’ve spoken about the consistency of our performances, within a game and from game to game, and we’re not going to get a result at QPR if we come away from the game and four or five players have been well below par.
“In order to win a football game at Championship level everybody has to be at the top end of their game and that’s what we’ll be looking for, putting everything else to one side and making sure the individual performance is where it needs to be in order for us to get a result.”
Parkinson was visibly angered by the defensive showing at the JD Stadium as hosts Wigan ran riot. Only time will tell this afternoon whether those two weeks’ work on the training ground has ironed out the deficiencies from the derby defeat.
“We understand we can only look back at the last game – defensively we weren’t strong enough,” he added. “We had more opportunities to score than we’ve had for a while, but the very basic requirements on a football pitch – defending properly, heading it clear of our box when it needs to be cleared – we’ve got to make sure we get that back in place. Every team at every level of football is built on the very basics on a football pitch and people play from within that structure.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re stronger in those areas at Loftus Road.”
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