SUPPORTERS fears were matched by the players' concerns today as Wanderers faced the prospect of another tough battle to beat the drop.

"It's worrying, of course it is," Per Frandsen admitted after Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Middlesbrough put Wanderers in the bottom three of the Premiership for the first time since March.

"We have to get some points on the board soon. We've been playing well but we didn't play well on Saturday. We've set some high standards for ourselves but that was not so good."

Gareth Farrelly, a half-time substitute at The Riverside, said the performance was simply "not good enough" and said Wanderers must find the form they have shown in recent games or suffer the consequences.

"We've set ourselves high standards across the board and we have to maintain those standards every day to stay at that level," he added.

"This performance was not good enough to warrant getting anything out of the game. Performances have got to be better to compete at this level.'

But the Dubliner says it is too early for anyone to start panicking. "It's disappointing but it's not a worry yet, not by any stretch of the imagination."

Outplayed for long periods of the game by a highly-talented Middlesbrough side bursting with confidence and riding high in the top three, Wanderers were lucky to still be in with a shout before the Cameroon midfielder Geremi - a team-mate of Ivan Campo's at Real Madrid - scored the decisive second goal on a 69th minute counter-attack.

The Bolton players were furious that Joseph Job got away with a crunching aerial challenge on Anthony Barness in the build-up and appealed in vain for offside. Video evidence showed the referee's assistant was right not to flag for the offside but they left Teesside aggrieved that the foul had not been given.

"I know it wasn't offside now," Frandsen added, "although it looked like it at the time. But there was definitely a foul on Barney; he got an elbow in his face.

"In fairness they are a good side. They have some good players who work hard for each other - some skilful players. That's why they are up there. But we didn't perform. We gave the ball away too easily and they had a great 20 minutes, creating a lot of chances and we were not in the game.

"The second half was different and we were doing okay until they scored. But we aren't getting any luck at the moment.

"We need to buy some luck from somewhere."

Barness, who appeared to know little about what hit him when he was felled by Job's challenge, said it was vital Wanderers started picking up points quickly. "Of course it is worrying when you're not getting points," the defender admitted.

"We want to get as many on the board before Christmas then we can push on from there.

"But until now we've not been worried about how performances are going.

"That wasn't a particularly good performance on Saturday but we've played well in previous games and I'm sure we'll get back up to the standards we've set for ourselves and then we'll get the points.

"But we've got to look at ourselves a little bit because we can't let it go too long."