PHIL Parkinson sent a message of apology to the Wanderers fans after watching his team out-classed on their own turf by Oxford United.

The Whites boss was disconsolate as two late goals from Wes Thomas and Chris Maguire condemned his side to a second defeat in five days.

Wanderers failed to put a shot on target against the U’s and have now failed to score in 443 minutes of football. But the manner of the performance – which drew an angry reaction from supporters at the final whistle – left Parkinson struggling to contain his disappointment.

“It’s going to be a long weekend, a long week,” he told The Bolton News. “I take it personally when we get beat but equally the lads know we’ve got to be better than that.

“We need more energy, more determination when it gets a bit tough. We’ve got some soul searching to do, we really have, because I feel we’ve let the supporters down over the last two games.

“That is not good enough for Bolton Wanderers and not good enough for the chairman, who has put a lot of faith in me and the staff here.

“I’ll go home and close the curtains, to be honest with you. I’ll speak to the chairman at some point but I hate losing and it really does hurt.

“I will accept defeats if I feel we’ve done ourselves justice but I don’t think we have done that at all.”

Wanderers have now failed to win any of their previous eight games in league and cup and the angry scenes on the terraces both on Saturday and on Tuesday night at Rochdale were reminiscent of last season as the club slid meekly towards relegation.

Parkinson had no qualms with the reaction.

“You can’t blame the supporters for being frustrated – getting beat 2-0 at home and not threatening the opposition goal, I’d be the same if I paid money to watch that,” he said.

“It’s part and parcel of football. If you play poorly the crowd are going to be on top of you and we’ve got to be big enough and recognise that.

“I think supporters anywhere across the world if you get beat at home and you don’t show enough to try and get the result, they’re going to respond the way they did, so I fully accept that.

“I take full responsibility.”