THIS has not been a season to remember for any Wanderers fan but Chris Mann, editor of the Burnden Aces website, explains what has particularly let him down

MY biggest disappointment this season has been the abject failure of senior players, leaving both Neil Lennon and Jimmy Phillips with little alternative but to field prospects from the academy.

While it has come as a welcome boost to see youngsters such as Rob Holding, Kaiyne Woolery, Tyler Garrett and George Newell emerge, one has to wonder just how much of an opportunity these starlets would have got had the more seasoned professionals played to their capability on a consistent basis.

Supporters were left bemused last summer, when bookmakers had Bolton among the favourites for relegation.

Wanderers could count themselves unlucky not to have beaten promotion favourites Derby County on the opening day.

The early-season optimism soon took a huge hit, with a League Cup exit at the hands of Burton coming as part of a run that saw Bolton win just one of their opening 24 games.

A morale-crushing defeat at Queens Park Rangers in October saw Wanderers drop into the bottom three, a position from which they never recovered. It was around this time that reports began to surface on the seriousness of the club’s financial situation and the urgency with which Eddie Davies needed to sell following his decision to halt funding.

It was evident that uncertainty and negativity coming from within the club was having an adverse effect on the matchday experience both on the pitch and in the stands. More experienced players such as Gary Madine, Dean Moxey, Dorian Dervite, Neil Danns and captain Darren Pratley saw performance levels drop to such an extent they began to feel the wrath of supporters.

With a transfer embargo, Wanderers had little option but to turn to youth to inject some freshness into a failing squad being let down majorly by underperforming players, some of whom had been Premier League regulars in the not too distant past.

Lennon’s departure and subsequent interim appointment of Phillips helped provide a platform for more of the club’s youngsters, with the success rate, at best, marginal.

While the likes of Clough, Holding, Woolery and Josh Vela have gone on to become regulars, the jury is still out on others such as Garrett, Tom Walker, Alex Finney and Oscar Threlkeld.

Their development should be aided by older colleagues, but Bolton are now in serious danger of finding themselves in a position where academy graduates yet to establish themselves suddenly become the ones burdened with pressure to succeed.

I have no doubt Wanderers will eventually reap the rewards of their current youth approach, but the summer must be fruitful in terms of bringing in the required senior professionals who will inevitably have to replace the ones who should have prevented us from being in this position in the first place.

Ultimately it is likely to take the sale of a Holding or a Clough to help fund those necessary improvements, meaning, once again, the youth could be used to cover the failings of their senior counterparts.