IT was Friday night, Wanderers were out of the bottom three – but the weekend was just about to get worse for Uwe Rosler.

Neil Lennon couldn’t hide his delight as Max Clayton, Chung-Yong Lee and Craig Davies netted to sink the Whites’ local rivals in front of the Sky cameras.

“We've set a benchmark; the game's live on TV across the nation so people are starting to talk about Bolton in a positive way, rather than a negative way,” he said.

“That's the first part of the job done.”

In contrast, Rosler’s post-match comments smacked of a man who might have known his time in charge was up.

“I have to be honest - Bolton won the game by pure willpower, desire, energy, going to the limit and forcing the issue, forcing the mistakes and forcing the goals - all credit to them,” said the German coach, whose side briefly looked like getting back into the game when Callum McManaman struck 13 minutes from time.

“We just folded altogether. And for that I have no understanding whatsoever. I take responsibility. I'm not blaming anybody but when we analyse the second half, we gave up.

“I apologise to the chairman, I apologise to the supporters. It's very, very seldom in the last 10 years that I had a team who gave up in the way we gave up in the second half.”