THREE games to go, six teams fighting for survival.

That is the state of play at the foot of the table as Wanderers move into an end-of-season ‘mini-league’, with Phil Parkinson’s sole aim being to end the campaign in the top half of that sextet.

The Whites’ destiny is in their own hands, following Birmingham’s defeat to Wolves last weekend. And as his side prepare to take on Nuno Espirito Santo’s already-promoted Wolves themselves the manager says no stone will be left unturned in their bid to avoid the drop.

“Birmingham went to Wolves and got beat and it’s now a three-game season,” said Parkinson. “There are six teams in the mix and we’ve got to do everything we can to be in the top of that six-team league now.

“I’d take staying up on the last day, without a doubt I don’t care what it takes – we’ve got to be prepared to do it and I feel the lads are ready to take on the challenge.

“Every season it’s rare that you get to this stage with nothing to play for, either in a relegation battle or a promotion battle, if you look at Bolton over the last few seasons, that’s the nature of the industry we’re in.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to come out with a smile on our face when these three games are done and dusted.”

That they are even in with a shout of escaping the clutches of League One is a testament to the upturn in fortunes Parkinson and his team have engineered.

Their first 11 league games of the season yielded just two points, though their results improved immeasurably since then, Wolves’ 5-1 victory in November ending a seven-game unbeaten run.

Parkinson refuses to look back on that rotten start, however, preferring to focus all his efforts on the task in hand and, just like Wanderers did last season when they were slugging it out with rivals at the top end of the table, haul themselves over the line.

“I don’t think we look back at the start too much,” he told The Bolton News. “We’ve got enough on our plate looking forward. Even looking back to the Barnsley game we can’t let that late goal be the thing which knocks us back.

“The performance at Barnsley, up to their goal but certainly in the second half, has given us a lift even though we conceded late in the game

“The manner in which the team galvanised to get back in the game has given everybody a lift going into the last three games of the season.

“I thought we were terrific and it shows that when we’re right on the money the energy in the team at times was too much for Barnsley.

“We were very unlucky not to win the game so we’ve got to let the manner of our comeback be the thing which drives us on, that’s been our message to the lads this week.”

Parkinson was at Molineux as Wolves beat Birmingham 2-0 last Sunday. He does not foresee any major surprises from the expensively-assembled Midlanders who will be champions if they avoid defeat this afternoon. He does, however, expect his players will have a lot of work to do without the ball.

“We know the way Wolves are going to play, they have won promotion and they will eventually win the title as well,” he said.

“We know what they’re all about and we’ve worked on how we need to set up against them and we’re looking forward to the challenge that brings.

“Obviously the first meeting was a game we’ve looked at because Wolves’ team has hardly changed since then.

“The shape they have played all through the season won’t change. So we’ve looked at that game and know we need to rectify the problems they caused us.

“We’ve sat down and watched the game and learned from it. We know we need to stay in the game better than we did down there.”

With the standings so tight in the bottom six, the manager could be forgiven for being sidetracked by latest scores elsewehere. But he says his own team’s performance is all he will be concerned with today – at least until the final whistle blows.

“I just want to focus on ourselves,” he said. “It’s in our own hands so if we take care of our own business we can let everyone else concentrate on themselves and at a quarter to five we’ll see where we are.”