IN the week Scotland decides whether to sever ties with Great Britain, one of their own is struggling desperately for votes on this side of the border.

No referendum is needed on whether fans feel Dougie Freedman should still be in charge at the club this morning. The minority has grown steadily into an overwhelming majority.

The crucial ballots belong to Eddie Davies and Phil Gartside, though, and while neither has accepted the invitation to clarify their manager’s position publically, they must surely be scrutinising an increasingly desperate situation more now than ever before.

This tepid 90 minutes summed up the current malcontent at the Macron Stadium perfectly.

Freedman is doing what he can to fashion a team that is resilient, and with one hand tied behind his back financially. Every penny spent seems to be squabbled and picked over – and that appears to have been at the cost of some of the manager’s main transfer targets.

What is left behind is a dutiful group of players that lacks any real inspiration and one that is clearly under-performing.

Wednesday were no better in the quality stakes but seemed the only team interested in taking all three points. They came close, seeing two efforts hooked off the line, but even had they claimed a win it would be hard to imagine Bolton fans feeling any more frustrated than they do right now.

Six games in, Wanderers have yet to sample victory; perhaps only at Leeds can they truly claim to have deserved one.

Explaining away the poor start, Freedman rather unwisely chose to play the financial card. In doing so with such regularity, he is losing the precious few who sympathise with his plight.

As with most men under such pressure, he is getting no luck at all; Adam Bogdan the latest name added to the casualty list after a training ground accident left him with a fractured finger.

But there are many who point out that Freedman is somewhat fortunate to be at a club renowned in recent history for not making knee-jerk managerial decisions.

“We need to remember where we are right now, not where we used to be,” said the Glaswegian, somewhat prophetically.

Wanderers fans need no reminding that the club are in the Championship’s relegation zone, and that three short years ago we were preparing for the visit of Manchester United in the Premier League.

In the manager’s view, the last 12 months of humdrum football has been a necessary purge, ridding the club of its top flight excesses and trimming down a wage bill that had spiralled out of control.

But has all this austerity become a crutch, just as injuries and bad luck seemed to legitimise the club’s decline under Owen Coyle?

It is on the pitch, not off it, where Wanderers and Freedman are failing right now.

Tactically, the Whites boss reverted back to a five-man midfield against Wednesday – a decision that was never going to be a popular one but understandable considering how porous his side had become before the international break.

However the selection of Tim Ream at right back was a shock one, given the options available.

Predictably, the American defender struggled, although nowhere near as much as specialist left-back Dean Moxey, whose inglorious start at Bolton shows no sign of slowing down.

Debutant Owen Garvan fared better, his unfussy passing style knitting well in midfield. Unfortunately, for all the possession play in the first half there was very little to aim at with Joe Mason running thanklessly around up front.

Steve May had a goal ruled out for Wednesday in the first half but the only legitimate chance of note fell to Chris Maguire, whose shot was cleared off the line by Matt Mills.

It took 55 minutes for Wanderers to make Keiren Westwood work, Jay Spearing blasting a shot from the edge of the box after Mark Davies’s earlier effort had been blocked.

Freedman changed his side’s shape by bringing on a second striker in Jermaine Beckford – greeted by jeers from both sets of fans for his Leeds connections – and bringing off Garvan and Davies, who had by then ran their race.

Darren Pratley was the other replacement but this was another one of those days where he couldn’t get anything right.

With next to no creative drive in the side, the final 20 minutes was played almost entirely in Wanderers territory.

Wednesday had brought on ex-Real Madrid star Royston Drenthe, whose twisting a turning provided a welcome bit of excitement in a turgid afternoon.

And Stuart Gray’s side nearly nicked it when Tom Lees’ header was hooked off the line by Moxey – who certainly finished stronger than he had started.

Wanderers hung in to secure a first clean sheet of the season, and for that they deserve some credit. There have been times when even a point would have slipped through their grasp.

It wasn’t a result celebrated on the terraces, where the empty seats had multiplied by the time Andy Haines brought proceedings to a close.

There were half-hearted jeers at the final whistle but none that reflected the general discontent that it seems the average Bolton Wanderers fan has in their heart at the moment.

Back when the supporters butted heads with Gary Megson not so long ago, the walls of the stadium shook with rage after a performance like this. Such is the general apathy nowadays, the only noise that could be heard was coming from the away end.

Perhaps that is a damning assessment of the fact such a period of change has come at a cost, not only in entertainment, or quality of the squad, but also to the very soul of the football club.

Long after the final whistle, Bolton fans could be heard singing the name of a supporter who recently passed away, suggesting that the spirit that made this football club so great is still there.

It is about time Wanderers stopped complaining about what they haven’t got, and made the best of what they do have.