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Keith Hill predicts that Wanderers will emerge stronger from their humiliation at Accrington last weekend.
The stunning 7-1 defeat was viewed as a low point by many fans – but the Bolton boss insists the experience could actually aid his players in the weeks to come.
The squad, assembled virtually en masse on the last day of the summer transfer window in August, have been playing catch-up for the last three months.
As such, Hill believes he can put results like Accrington into context, avoiding over-reaction and allowing his squad to learn from the experience.
“Everybody should be on the same page,” he told The Bolton News. “We’re 12 weeks out of a plane crash and we were the sole survivors.
“We got called the Dirty Dozen through the early stages of coming together and to push that further, we’ve got more battles to fight and wars to be won.
“When you are fighting you do lose rounds, it’s simple. You fall back on a strategy at that point, a mental toughness that we have been developing. It’s improving that immune system and making ourselves internally stronger so that externally we look stronger in the long run.
“Over the last 10 games and 12 weeks we have have some massive highs and some real lows and I need everyone to understand that there will be a yo-yo effect, based purely on the situation we’re in. There has got to be a realisation from everyone that it won’t change for the foreseeable future.
“Anyone who thinks it should change quicker, or that we’re behind, should really consider the facts.”
Hill says the reaction from his players in training this week has been “100 per cent realistic” but that the chase to avoid relegation from League One will not be wrecked by one heavy defeat.
“We are still eyes wide open to the predicament we’ve been in, and that hadn’t changed from the week before from my perspective,” he said. “I have been pretty level-headed and we know there is a big task at hand. It’s not a quick turnaround but it’s achievable.”
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The stunning 7-1 defeat was viewed as a low point by many fans – but the Bolton boss insists the experience could actually aid his players in the weeks to come.
The squad, assembled virtually en masse on the last day of the summer transfer window in August, have been playing catch-up for the last three months.
As such, Hill believes he can put results like Accrington into context, avoiding over-reaction and allowing his squad to learn from the experience.
“Everybody should be on the same page,” he told The Bolton News. “We’re 12 weeks out of a plane crash and we were the sole survivors.
“We got called the Dirty Dozen through the early stages of coming together and to push that further, we’ve got more battles to fight and wars to be won.
“When you are fighting you do lose rounds, it’s simple. You fall back on a strategy at that point, a mental toughness that we have been developing. It’s improving that immune system and making ourselves internally stronger so that externally we look stronger in the long run.
“Over the last 10 games and 12 weeks we have have some massive highs and some real lows and I need everyone to understand that there will be a yo-yo effect, based purely on the situation we’re in. There has got to be a realisation from everyone that it won’t change for the foreseeable future.
“Anyone who thinks it should change quicker, or that we’re behind, should really consider the facts.”
Hill says the reaction from his players in training this week has been “100 per cent realistic” but that the chase to avoid relegation from League One will not be wrecked by one heavy defeat.
“We are still eyes wide open to the predicament we’ve been in, and that hadn’t changed from the week before from my perspective,” he said. “I have been pretty level-headed and we know there is a big task at hand. It’s not a quick turnaround but it’s achievable.”
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