KEEPER Ben Amos reckons Wanderers cannot hide behind a lack of funding as an excuse for failure in the Championship.

The summer signing delivered a frank assessment of the Whites’ poor start, which has seen them win just one game out of their first 16.

Though Neil Lennon is in a minority of managers in the division who has not spent a penny on permanent signings this season, Amos says the players cannot let the club’s financial problems affect their performances.

And though hope could well be on the horizon in the form of a takeover, the Whites keeper believes the onus is on the dressing room to put things right over the international break.

“The fans aren’t daft, they realise the situation the club is in,” he told The Bolton News. “The budget here isn’t anything like some of the other clubs in the league.

“But having said that, we don’t care about money – we know as a group that we can push up the table. We are good enough and we are not hiding behind that. We can’t hide behind that.

“We need people to support us, we’ll always do our best for them, and I think the fans have been very patient.

“But as players we know the responsibility falls on us.”

Amos admitted that recent performances have been “nervous” but insists that one good result could trigger a decent run.

He warned his team-mates, however, that regardless of the quality in the squad, they will be embroiled in a relegation scrap unless they learn how to handle the pressure better.

“We can’t do anything about the bad press,” he said. “We can’t control it. All we can do is make sure we’re doing what we should be on the pitch.

“Pressure is what you put on yourself. We accept we have to pick ourselves up and get more points.

“I don’t think we’re too good to be down there – that’s a dangerous thing to say but we believe we are capable of getting up there. We just need to be more consistent.

“People need to chip in with a few more goals and we need to keep defending well and keeping the ball out of the net.”