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Searching for a cure to travel sickness seems to have been a preoccupation of Bolton Wanderers managers since time immemorial.
At the end of the last decade it was revealed that the Whites had taken fewer points on the road than any other club in the Football League during the so-called ‘teenies’.
To put Bolton’s more recent struggles into perspective, they have taken just 32 points from a possible 177 away from home in the last two-and-a-half seasons.
So starting a week which sees his team make the journey to MK Dons and then Blackpool, you could forgive Keith Hill a little uneasiness.
There have been some reasonable performances away from the UnBol under his tenure – most notably the victory at Bristol Rovers. Honourable mentions must also go to the draw at Sunderland on Boxing Day and also the performances in defeat at Coventry City and Portsmouth.
But there have also been some hidings. And Hill is the first person to admit that his team has yet to settle on a way of playing away from home that completely suits the players he has available.
“It’s a conundrum.,” he told The Bolton News. “We have looked at it and we’re going to have to be a little more streetwise, a little more football intelligent away from home.
“It’s something we’re trying to work on but it’s not an overnight success. It’s a product that has to have some continuity and an almost-automatic feel to it so that if we do have injuries to one player there’s someone else coming in who knows the job we want them to do, and there’s a synergy to the team.”
It is all a far cry from Wanderers’ last stint in League One, where Phil Parkinson’s side actually took 40 points away from home, just six fewer than they managed at the then Macron Stadium.
The team that dropped into the third tier that season had failed to win a single game on the road the previous season in the Championship, claiming just four points of 69 available. It is also fair to point out that Hill is working in very different circumstances to his predecessor – and so direct comparisons are difficult to make.
The rather fierce criticism that followed last weekend’s defeat at home to Wycombe mean that both Hill and Wanderers could use an immediate response before they return home to face Accrington on February 29.
Talk over the last few days has been of “red zones” – the periods before half and full-time which seem to spell danger for Bolton in their recent outings.
Hill feels the answer to gaining more points is not as complex as some are making out.
“I think it’s just making fewer mistakes,” he said. “Football’s a game of mistakes, life’s a game of mistakes.
“It’s how you take on board your previous experiences and learn as you take them into your next opportunity or phase of your life. It’s important you learn from your experiences.
“Certain parts of the last two were quite encouraging – Coventry and Doncaster. Even the one before that at Lincoln, to a certain extent before it all fell to pieces in the last 10 to 15 minutes of the game.
“Again it’s about a 90-minute plus game, composure, concentration and high levels of being able to do your job. It’s simple.”
Hill has been pleased with the mood on the training ground at Lostock this week but accepts his players are battling with fairly fragile confidences out on the pitch come matchday.
He believes, however, that the situation is retrievable and that the squad has has assembled is capable of getting better results before the end of the season.
“There is hope, ambition, energy, but we’ve got to channel it right,” he said.
“(We’ve got) good players but there’s probably a bit of self-doubt and anxiety and the only way you can fix that is bringing happiness to the football and enjoying the exposure of the games we play.
“It’s simple really, it’s a self-fix. If you are a full-back playing for Bolton Wanderers you have probably been playing that position the best part of your whole life so you are good at it, you know how to play it, and there’s just a little bit of self-doubt at times whether it’s a full-back, goalkeeper, central defender, that’s what you get when you lose football matches."
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At the end of the last decade it was revealed that the Whites had taken fewer points on the road than any other club in the Football League during the so-called ‘teenies’.
To put Bolton’s more recent struggles into perspective, they have taken just 32 points from a possible 177 away from home in the last two-and-a-half seasons.
So starting a week which sees his team make the journey to MK Dons and then Blackpool, you could forgive Keith Hill a little uneasiness.
There have been some reasonable performances away from the UnBol under his tenure – most notably the victory at Bristol Rovers. Honourable mentions must also go to the draw at Sunderland on Boxing Day and also the performances in defeat at Coventry City and Portsmouth.
But there have also been some hidings. And Hill is the first person to admit that his team has yet to settle on a way of playing away from home that completely suits the players he has available.
“It’s a conundrum.,” he told The Bolton News. “We have looked at it and we’re going to have to be a little more streetwise, a little more football intelligent away from home.
“It’s something we’re trying to work on but it’s not an overnight success. It’s a product that has to have some continuity and an almost-automatic feel to it so that if we do have injuries to one player there’s someone else coming in who knows the job we want them to do, and there’s a synergy to the team.”
It is all a far cry from Wanderers’ last stint in League One, where Phil Parkinson’s side actually took 40 points away from home, just six fewer than they managed at the then Macron Stadium.
The team that dropped into the third tier that season had failed to win a single game on the road the previous season in the Championship, claiming just four points of 69 available. It is also fair to point out that Hill is working in very different circumstances to his predecessor – and so direct comparisons are difficult to make.
The rather fierce criticism that followed last weekend’s defeat at home to Wycombe mean that both Hill and Wanderers could use an immediate response before they return home to face Accrington on February 29.
Talk over the last few days has been of “red zones” – the periods before half and full-time which seem to spell danger for Bolton in their recent outings.
Hill feels the answer to gaining more points is not as complex as some are making out.
“I think it’s just making fewer mistakes,” he said. “Football’s a game of mistakes, life’s a game of mistakes.
“It’s how you take on board your previous experiences and learn as you take them into your next opportunity or phase of your life. It’s important you learn from your experiences.
“Certain parts of the last two were quite encouraging – Coventry and Doncaster. Even the one before that at Lincoln, to a certain extent before it all fell to pieces in the last 10 to 15 minutes of the game.
“Again it’s about a 90-minute plus game, composure, concentration and high levels of being able to do your job. It’s simple.”
Hill has been pleased with the mood on the training ground at Lostock this week but accepts his players are battling with fairly fragile confidences out on the pitch come matchday.
He believes, however, that the situation is retrievable and that the squad has has assembled is capable of getting better results before the end of the season.
“There is hope, ambition, energy, but we’ve got to channel it right,” he said.
“(We’ve got) good players but there’s probably a bit of self-doubt and anxiety and the only way you can fix that is bringing happiness to the football and enjoying the exposure of the games we play.
“It’s simple really, it’s a self-fix. If you are a full-back playing for Bolton Wanderers you have probably been playing that position the best part of your whole life so you are good at it, you know how to play it, and there’s just a little bit of self-doubt at times whether it’s a full-back, goalkeeper, central defender, that’s what you get when you lose football matches."
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