TWO previous Wanderers managers sealed their own fate with an admission their team may not be good enough to survive in the Championship, and it would be a crying shame if Phil Parkinson proved to be a third.

Both Dougie Freedman and Neil Lennon paid the price for uttering words not unlike the ones voiced by Parkinson in the aftermath of a truly concerning home defeat against Brentford. Complete honesty may not always be the best policy in management and some Bolton fans have seized on his post-match proclamation as a statement of surrender.

Parkinson’s players seemed to wave the white flag uncharacteristically quickly as they failed to make an early period of dominance pay and fell behind to a quite wonderful free-kick from Yoann Barbet.

The shallow, insipid display after half time bore all the hallmarks of the 6-0 defeat at Bristol City in the last Championship stint – and coincidentally, Wanderers return to the scene of that crime tomorrow night.

Nico Yennaris and Ollie Watkins added two more goals to chalk up a first win of the season for the Bees, the margin of which would have been even more convincing had Ben Alnwick not been determined to keep professional pride.

Parkinson and his staff pulled off a minor miracle to secure promotion in a transfer embargo last season but results thus far suggest this squad is undercooked for this level of football. Deprived of the chance to conduct business in a single transfer window so far it seems heart-breaking to think all that hard work is now starting to unravel.

For the first time it appeared the Whites not only lacked the tools to get the job done but also the motivation, a truly worrying sign indeed.

The gap to safety after just nine games is now five points and a sixth game without a goal now stands as the most barren run in this club’s long and illustrious history.

The most optimistic, myself included, believe all hope is not lost. Josh Vela should be back after the international break and Sammy Ameobi – who underwent a pre-match fitness test but did not feature in Saturday’s squad – will also give Wanderers more options.

We may well have reached the point that Parkinson needs to find answers in the short-term to protect himself, however, starting with Ashton Gate and then moving on to Villa Park at the weekend before the international break.

Criticised in recent weeks for playing too defensively, the Brentford defeat showed the dangers of pushing things too far in the other direction.

A 3-4-3 had worked well enough against a defence-minded Ipswich at Portman Road but the same sort of formation was exploited relentlessly for the opening hour by the Bees.

Wanderers had a bright start – Gary Madine hitting the post with a half-volley, looping a shot on to the roof of the net and bringing a smart left-handed save out of David Bentley. Adam Armstrong also came within a whisker of turning home Antonee Robinson’s cross in the first 10 minutes.

Once Brentford recovered their composure, however, they attacked at will. Yennaris was virtually untouchable in the middle of the park and would later cap a masterful performance with a stunning 25-yard strike.

Jem Karacan and Josh Cullen, who had been rested in midweek and were two of the better players at Ipswich, were completely negated.

Parkinson watched with concern as his midfield was over-run and the oh-too-familiar gaps started to appear behind wing-backs Robinson and Mark Little, pulling Mark Beevers and Reece Burke out of position. From there, it was just a case of when Brentford would strike.

On 38 minutes, Frenchman Barbet – only on the pitch because of a head injury to John Egan – smacked a free-kick into the top corner to set alarm bells ringing.

Parkinson tried to respond by switching to a 4-4-2 soon after the break but that just left his midfield even more exposed.

For all the fans’ clamour to see the formation used more extensively, factoring in striker Adam Le Fondre, there must be a realisation it cannot happen without some midfield muscle.

Therein lies the problem for the Wanderers boss, who has just one player capable of filling that box-to-box role, Darren Pratley, and he has been on a quite dreadful run of form.

Even as Yennaris made it two and Watkins three, Wanderers fans resorted to walking out of the Macron in disgust rather than aiming their anger wholesale at the manager.

There is still a strong core of respect for the man who led the club to its first promotion in 16 years, and rightly so.

Victory in Bristol or even at Villa Park would give those supporters something to cling on to in what is likely to be an international break of much introspection.

But there will be no turning of the tide with performances like this one, which ranked right down there with some of the worst on home soil in living memory.

Aside from Gary Madine, every player who set foot on the pitch in a Wanderers shirt was either signed, or in David Wheater’s case re-signed, by Parkinson and given an opportunity to represent Bolton Wanderers.

That privilege, above all else, should be ample motivation for the players to put things right and prove to everyone they can cut it in the Championship.