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Will Aimson says accusations of a “soft centre” at Wanderers are tough to stomach.
Ian Evatt’s side are in the middle of a poor run of form on the road, stretched to five games without a point or a goal by Tuesday night’s 3-0 defeat at Fleetwood.
Under pressure to produce a response against Accrington, Aimson says he has taken the criticism which followed the defeat in midweek personally.
“It’s an old-fashioned saying but sometimes you just have to be an ugly central defender. For people to say you are soft is not a nice thing to hear,” he told The Bolton News.
“Performances and results haven’t been what we wanted so we have to take that criticism on the chin and try to prove them wrong.
“We know we let the fans down. We appreciate them going to that game in the conditions, coming after work, leaving early, and we don’t want that to happen again.
“It personally hurts me. People say they can’t hear it, but you can, especially in a smaller ground like Fleetwood. You can hear a lot.
“I hate letting people down and I will be doing everything to stop that happening again.”
Even though Wanderers went to Fleetwood without some key players, Aimson believes they cannot use injuries or the wet and wild conditions as an excuse for a dismal display.
“I think we let them off the hook a little bit in terms of we didn’t put enough pressure on them as they did to us in the first half,” he said.
“I’ve personally never played in conditions like that. It was difficult, but it was also the same for both teams so we were gutted and disappointed.
“I thought we were building after the last few performances a bit of momentum, but then all of a sudden, that happens.
“Of course, it’s difficult but it’s the game, it’s football and it does happen, so we’ve had to look at it and see what was wrong and where we can improve and take some responsibility like we all have to and put it right at the weekend.”
Inconsistency is starting to become an unwanted hallmark of this Bolton side, much to Aimson’s frustration.
“We can’t keep being in the situation where we need to bounce back every other week,” he said. “It can’t be a couple of good games and a couple of good performances and then a bad one. We just can’t keep putting ourselves in that situation.
“We know we have to bounce back at Accrington because we haven’t got a choice.
“But beyond that we need to find that level of consistency if we are going to climb the league and stay there.”
Aimson knows there will be no hospitable welcome at the Wham Stadium on Saturday.
Wanderers have never won at a ground where memories of a 7-1 hiding still linger fresh in the memory for many supporters.
For Evatt’s players, a chance to show they can match a notoriously physical side and grind out a result.
“It is normally a really tough place to play,” Aimson said. “I’ve played there a few times in my career and they’re always well drilled, always honest and hardworking and if you think Tuesday night was tough, then you’ve got another thing coming on Saturday.
“It’s going to be a battle, one we’re going to have to stand up to more than we did on Tuesday. That’s the bare minimum and hopefully the talent that we’ve got in the team can shine through and get us over the line.”
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