DOUGIE Freedman urged fans to “get real” as pressure on his position intensified at the weekend.

A goalless draw against Sheffield Wednesday left Wanderers in the bottom three, without a league win this season, and served to exasperate the majority of supporters who now want to see change at the top.

Freedman remains defiant, insisting that his side can get out of the slump, and appears to have the support of the board, but some question whether his lack of support on the terraces has now left him in an untenable position.

The Scot continues to plead poverty, arguing that the club’s financial situation should make supporters re-address their expectations.

“There is no-one putting more pressure on me than myself right now,” he told The Bolton News.

“I am desperate to be top of the league but I’m a very realistic person and I know that the clubs up there are spending money that we simply don’t have. My job has been to balance the books and make sure we keep some spirit and some fight, and I think I have done that.

“We need to remember where we are right now, not where we used to be.”

The lack of any public clarification from chairman Phil Gartside or owner Eddie Davies makes it difficult to judge whether Freedman’s position is truly under threat.

What is clear to fans is that only Blackpool and Fulham lie below Wanderers in the table and that their side are one of only six clubs in the Football League who are yet to claim a win.

Speaking after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, Freedman was certain that the elusive victory was just around the corner.

“We are going to win a game of football, it’s just when,” he said.

“We haven’t got a team that lies down any more. In the last 10 minutes of that game we had three or four players going in for 50-50 tackles and refusing to give up.

“We need a bit of luck to fall our way. We’ve had some freak accidents go against us.

“I’ve got to build a team that has got a spirit and will work for each other. Maybe that’s not to the fans’ liking sometimes, but it’s what we’ve got to have.”