Avoiding relegation would obviously be an incredible achievement for Bolton but staying up isn’t the be-all and end-all for Wanderers this season.
Despite Keith Hill’s Bolton team picking up their first win of the season against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday, staying up is still a hugely arduous task for the Trotters.
As things stand, Bolton are a whopping 18 points from safety and will need play-off worthy form until the end of the season to have any chance of beating the drop.
However, failing to stay up wouldn’t be the end of the world for Bolton. Of course, we’re obviously wishing for another heroic great escape from the Trotters but we’ve just got to keep expectations at a realistic level for the time being.
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(Photo by Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)
The bigger picture
It’s always worth remembering that Bolton were, for a moment, mere hours away from being expelled from League One back in August.
While we still crave results every week, we’ve just got to remember that we’re lucky to still have a club to support.
When you look at the fate of our neighbours in Bury, Wanderers could be facing a far worse prospect than relegation if not for the brilliant Sharon Brittan and co. who took over at Bolton after months of negotiations.
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(Photo by Kevin Barnes – CameraSport via Getty Images)
‘Be happy with what you have’
Keith Hill has said from day one that he’s focusing on creating a ‘winning environment’ at Bolton and building a team to be proud of rather than concentrating on results. In doing so, he has undoubtedly got his players playing some of the most entertaining football we’ve seen at the UniBol for well over a decade.
While the league table makes for uncomfortable reading, and probably will for some time, actually going to watch our beloved Bolton team has become a joyous experience again, apart from last Saturday’s defeat against Rochdale perhaps.
After years of below par and tedious hoofball displays, Bolton are a team worth sitting up and taking notice of. Even if Keith Hill can’t succeed in keeping the club in League One, we’ll go down fighting and putting on an eye-catching show in the process.
Besides, Bolton have spent a season in what was the Fourth Division as recently as 1988 and what followed was a meteoric rise that ended in the club’s most successful spell in the top tier of English football, so you know, good things come to those who wait and all that.