PHIL Parkinson refused to use pre-season as an excuse for Wanderers’ sluggish start in a friendly defeat against Mansfield Town.

Ex-Bury striker Danny Rose gave the League Two Stags a perfect start, tapping home from close range after Chris Clements had got beyond stand-in skipper Mark Beevers.

Krystian Pearce then made it 2-0 after just 15 minutes, flicking Mal Benning’s free kick past Ben Amos and some statuesque Whites defending.

Mark Davies had a close-range effort well saved by Scott Shearer before the break but it wasn’t until the second half that Wanderers looked anything like as organised as they had the week earlier in Denmark.

Zach Clough halved the deficit, spinning on to Max Clayton’s pass and finishing well.

Tom Walker and Kaiyne Woolery put dangerous crosses into the penalty box later on to no avail.

“When we won in Denmark I was happy to celebrate the fact, so I can’t say honestly that I am not taking a bit of disappointment from this game,” Parkinson told The Bolton News. “You train to win and when you start as lackadaisically as we did today you are not going to win.

“They started like a team playing against someone from a higher league. And if you defend like that, it’ll be costly.

“I thought the group who came out for the second half improved, looked more organised, more solid, but you can’t really start games like that.

“So it’s back to the training ground, bounce back on Monday morning.”

David Wheater returned in a Bolton shirt, just a few weeks after he was officially released by the club.

The centre-half is training with the club, Parkinson admitting after the game that a contract offer is “possible”.