We can’t hide from fact we’re in a tricky spot, says Bolton boss Parkinson

Posted Sunday, March 03, 2019 by PA

Bolton manager Phil Parkinson admits their chances of staying in the Championship look bleak.

A 2-0 loss at Swansea pushed the second-bottom visitors a step closer to the drop as they finished the match with nine men.

Craig Noone earned two yellow cards in the space of nine first-half minutes and David Wheater was also dismissed as he tripped Wayne Routledge to prevent a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

The nine men looked set to hold on for a point before Oli McBurnie, who had earlier seen a penalty saved by Remi Matthews, finally broke their resistance 10 minutes from time before Bersant Celina wrapped up the points in added time.

Rotherham and Reading both won to cut Bolton seven points adrift and Parkinson is pessimistic about their survival hopes.

“It leaves us in a very tricky position, they are bad results for us today, you can’t hide away from that,” he said.

“We do feel sorry for ourselves at the moment, but we have a long journey back to get that out of our system and we have to come in next week ready to go in again.

“The first sending-off is a bad decision by the referee. Craig has gone into a challenge to block the ball in the middle of the pitch and I’m not sure how you can tackle any fairer than that.

If those tackles are yellow cards, then we may as well rule out tackling altogether in professional football.

“Craig stays on his feet and stays strong in a block challenge and it’s never a yellow card in a million years.

“The second one is a straight red card – even though David is a long way from goal he is the last man.”

Swansea moved to within seven points of the playoffs and manager Graham Potter was pleased with their patient approach.

“The hardest thing to do is play against a team with a defensive mindset and you have to find the answers all the time,” he said.

“For a young group, for young players to have the courage in each other, the support of each other to react well means I am really pleased.

“They were disappointed after last week (when they lost 3-1 at Sheffield Wednesday), but their response has been tremendous and it was a good lesson for us.

“We were humble enough to understand the challenge and we created chances and, in the end, scored two goals.

“They showed understanding as well because a team going down to 10 men does not necessarily give you an advantage in the key areas of the pitch.

“We had to overcome that, but, if you look over the 90 minutes, we deserved the win and I am really pleased for the players who put a lot of work in.”