GREAT ESCAPE
Bolton’s Phil Parkinson and Aaron Wilbraham on saving their status
PHIL Parkinson invited the neighbours round on Sunday night. Next day, he went to a street party on the village green.
As celebrations go it was lowkey rather than lavish. But when you’ve just saved the Championship’s most straitened club from relegation, perhaps that is apt.
Bolton’s season had begun with budget cuts, transfer embargoes and wage reductions. For much of a dramatic final day, it seemed destined to end with an immediate return to League One.
Needing to beat Forest and hope Barnsley and Burton failed to win, an already dire situation seemed irretrievable when the Trotters fell 2-1 behind with 11 minutes to go.
“Did I think we were gone? Oh yeah,” admits Parkinson. “At 2-1, the clock ticking away – it’s only human to fear the worst.”
Cue bedlam. With three minutes remaining, old-stager David Wheater scrambled home from close range. Then Aaron Wilbraham – the 38-year-old whose selection had irked fans stooped to head a winner.
Drama
Incredibly, a team that had scored two goals in their previous seven games had found the net twice in 60 seconds.
“We actually had a chat with the lads in midweek about lastday drama,” said Parkinson. “In recent weeks, we’d conceded goals and not responded the right way. Confidence ebbed away and we couldn’t let that happen.
“So we spoke about all the famous last-gasp escapes, like Jimmy Glass at Carlisle. We talked about going right to the end because it only takes a moment to flip things round. It was about making sure we hung in there to the bitter end - and that’s exactly what we did.”
In truth, Bolton have been hanging on since January, when top scorer Gary Madine was sold to Cardiff for £6m. Outwardly, Parkinson spun the positives. Privately, he knew the wheels had come off.
“That was a crushing blow for us,” he admits. “The chairman (Ken Anderson) always said he’d try not to sell Gaz, but if the fee reached a certain level, he’d have to do it.
“It was a brave call, because we knew it would hurt us. But that money also safeguarded the future of the club. When it’s keep your striker or put jobs at risk, there’s only one choice.
“The day the window closed, we came in and said ‘Listen, whatever we’re feeling, we’ve got to be positive for the lads’.
“The next night, we changed the shape of the team, changed the dynamic and beat Bristol City live on TV. For a while, we got results. But, long-term, anybody who loses their top scorer 24 hours before the window shuts is going to struggle.
“It was hard, but the lads have been great. I really mean that. Before the game on Sunday, I said to them that whatever happened against Forest, their professionalism had been excellent.
“Even the lads out of the team - like Aaron Wilbraham, for example - have driven standards in training and been senior pros in the dressing room. That is huge in any club, but especially when you haven’t got the resources. In the end, it kept us up.”
The sale of Madine wasn’t the only problem Parkinson faced this term. Until September, Bolton were operating under a transfer embargo, a legacy of the financial turmoil that very nearly saw the club go bust in 2016.
Restricted to 20 players – later raised to 23 – the Trotters could offer a maximum wage of just £5,000-a-week.
“We’re probably one of the only clubs who’ve ever come up a division and actually cut the wage bill,” says Parkinson. “And we’re definitely the only one who hasn’t paid a penny in fees this season.
“A lot of the bigger earners left. A lot of players who wanted to stay with us got offered significantly reduced contracts. That’s not an easy conversation, but they all took it on the chin, rolled their sleeves up and did us proud.”
For such reasons does Parkinson rank Bolton’s survival above any previous achievements even leading League Two Bradford to the League Cup final.
“It’s definitely right up there,” he says. “My first promotion, many years ago at Colchester, is the only one that comes close.
“To take a club of that stature into the Championship was remarkable. Like Bolton, we were right up against it in terms of financial constraints, budgets, all that sort of thing.
“Everybody knows the spending power went out of control in the summer. Championship teams were spending sums nobody had ever seen before. We were at the opposite end of that, so there’s a lot of pride in staying up.” And relief ?
“Of course,” adds the former Reading midfielder. “The thing with promotion is that you’ve always got the safety net of the play-offs. And even if you fail, you’re still in the same division.
“In a relegation battle, there’s no second chance. And once you’re gone, you won’t be back for at least 12 months.
Magnitude
“The lads knew the magnitude of the situation. There’s some who’ve been here a while like David Wheater, Darren Pratley. They’ve seen it before and they understand what relegation means in terms of livelihoods. “That kind of pressure can weigh heavily on somebody’s shoulders and some of the performances these last few weeks, it showed. So to throw those shackles off when it mattered showed a lot of character.” After a couple of days to recover from his Bank Holiday celebrations, Parkinson says he will sit down with Anderson and work on improvements for next season. That’s the theory, anyway. With several foreign investors in talks with Anderson, there is no guarantee he will even be in the dugout. But, for now, Parkinson just wants to reflect on a job well done. “At times in the past, there’s been a bit of a disconnect between the players and supporters at this club,” he says. “They’ve seen people on a lot of money who aren’t showing that desire. “My aim was to get the right people into the building, irrespective of what they’re paid. I think we’ve done that.”