TIME is not on Phil Parkinson’s side as he strives to avoid setting a new club record this weekend.

Wanderers extended their goalless streak to five matches with Tuesday night’s 3-0 defeat at West Ham in the Carabao Cup.

They have never gone six games without scoring and yet that is the unwanted record they will set if they fail to hit the target against Brentford on Saturday.

Jem Karacan was Wanderers’ last goal-scorer, netting against Sheffield Wednesday in the previous round of the Carabao Cup – now more than six-and-a-half hours ago.

Parkinson hopes by giving his squad maximum rest before the Bees visit the Macron they can chalk up a first win.

The Whites boss says his players will spend minimal time on the training ground before tomorrow’s full session at Lostock.

“Of course, there are areas in our game which can be improved. I know we have to get better,” he told The Bolton News. “We are not scoring goals. I know that has to change.

“But we’re not going to get loads of time on the training ground to put it right. We’ll have a recovery session and we’ll need to give the players some rest because the most important thing for Saturday is that they have some energy to face Brentford.”

Only Birmingham City can match Wanderers’ meagre record of four goals from their opening eight games, with Gary Madine the only player to score more than once. Parkinson took heart from the number of chances created at Portman Road last weekend but says his side has to be more clinical if they are going to get out of their current funk.

“We need to find an answer,” he said. “Can I go and sign a £2million striker between now and Saturday? No. I can only really look at other areas to try to improve our production in front of goal.

“I think if you look at Saturday against Ipswich we created more chances than we have all season. What cost us really was the final finish, the last bit of quality, a lot of the approach play was good.

“If we can replicate that then I really do think the wins will follow.”