RED-EYED with a distant stare, Dougie Freedman knew his time as Wanderers boss was over as he stood, flanked on three sides by local press at Craven Cottage in October.

As his team made another wretched start to the campaign, calls for him to be removed had grown louder and louder on the terraces.

The definitive night, however, would be staged many miles from the Macron at Fulham. A performance every bit as dismaying as the 7-1 defeat at Reading several months earlier, it was clear to see that the end had come. As each of the four goals went in, another nail was hammered in the coffin.

Freedman’s style of football had never sat well with the fans but seldom looked as laboured and pedestrian as it did at the start of this season.

The former Crystal Palace boss had been somewhat of a fall guy during austere times at Bolton. In shedding some of the squad’s bigger earners, and more popular characters, he had lost a lot of popularity among the fans.

On the pitch he had just about stayed afloat with some canny loan signings like Lukas Jutkiewicz and Craig Dawson. But off it, disharmony between the club's academy set-up and the first-team staff had created a civil war within the club that the Scot never managed to address.

His own man-management had come under question, too, and the team that was disassembled on the pitch that cold Wednesday night was as low on confidence as any Whites side had been since the club was relegated from the Premier League.

Freedman had always insisted he had a long-term plan and that his tactical approach would work out in the end. His belligerence had often rubbed fans up the wrong way and even those who had backed him to the hilt through his rebuilding process were now questioning his next move.

Asked if his side were good enough to avoid relegation to League One, he answered: “It doesn’t look like it,” driving one more nail into the lid.

The next day a mutual termination was agreed. Freedman moved on to find another post at Nottingham Forest four months later but left behind a side rock bottom in the Championship and devoid of confidence.

Looking back with hindsight, the slide had begun during the summer.

Wanderers’ fans had gone into the new season feeling rather underwhelmed. A long pursuit of Jutkiewicz – the striker who had carried the Whites almost single-handedly the season earlier on loan – had come to nothing.

Most of Freedman’s signings were loanees who were well-known to supporters like Neil Danns, Liam Feeney, or those returning for another loan spell like Kevin McNaughton or later, Joe Mason.

One notable exception in the line-up on the opening day at Watford was Dean Moxey, a specialist left-back with a good pedigree. His debut – which lasted an hour before being mercifully substituted with a foot injury – will last long in the memory as one of the most unfortunate you’d wish to see.

The Hornets looked a side destined for promotion as their formidable strike force of Matej Vydra and Troy Deeney reunited to give Moxey and Wanderers a sound beating.

Knowing the dreadful start the club had made 12 months earlier and given there was little goodwill left in the tank, Freedman knew patience would run out quickly should things not improve.

Unconvincing Capital One Cup wins against local rivals Bury and League One Crewe didn’t appease many fans, who by now were calling for change top to bottom, and including chairman Phil Gartside’s name in their angry chants.

One bright note of an otherwise poor start had been the form of defender Matt Mills, who looked to have finally overcome his fitness problems to become a key man at both ends of the pitch.

The big defender led the scoring charts as Jermaine Beckford and Co continued to struggle in front of goal – Jutkiewicz’s absence now being shown up on a weekly basis.

Beckford had won the club’s Golden Boot in his first season, albeit with little competition. His relationship with the supporters had always been a brittle one but any goodwill he had evaporated at his former club Leeds, when a salute to the home fans midway though the game with Wanderers 1-0 down was as ill-judged as they come.

The striker was unrepentant, though Freedman’s annoyance was obvious. It was a distraction he could certainly have done without. And more was to come a few days later.

An international break had given players a chance to take a short holiday but when pictures emerged of skipper Jay Spearing partying in Ibiza, the reaction among many fans was one of pure anger.

Freedman – and Spearing – got a brief respite when a gritty draw against Sheffield Wednesday was followed by a 3-2 home win over Rotherham United, Wanderers’ goals all coming from Joe Mason and ending a 12-year wait for a hat-trick in a Bolton shirt.

The pressure on Mason to succeed in his third loan spell with the Whites was immense. But after his heroics against the Millers, Mason’s season descended into obscurity, an injury forcing him back to Cardiff without another goal for Bolton.

Meanwhile, Freedman’s hold on his job became more tenuous with each passing defeat.

Slightly hard done by in a close game at Wolves, there were signs of fight in defeat against future Premier League champions Chelsea in the Capital One Cup. The sight of Mills equalising at Stamford Bridge with a towering header is an image that will live long in the memory of the fans who travelled to Stamford Bridge.

But Wanderers failed to build on that performance and after being comfortably despatched at the Macron by Derby, the 4-0 midweek loss at Fulham proved the final blow.

Freedman had questioned the quality within his ranks before and his rationalisation of the club’s situation, his preoccupation with the dwindling finances, made for a thoroughly downbeat environment.

A split was undoubtedly the best decision for all concerned.

Neil Lennon’s arrival triggered a pre-Christmas run of form that effectively saw Wanderers safe from relegation. But some familiar problems cropped up in the final few months which brought about a similar response in the Northern Irishman.

By May he too was querying the quality, the mentality, the desire in the camp.

Lennon took swift, decisive action on his arrival, loaning out the likes of Medo Kamara and Jay Spearing who were not suited to the style of football he wanted to play.

It is clear, however, from the last few months that the problems run deeper and that Freedman’s legacy will be harder to shift.