THE motoring organisations were calling it Black Friday long before the wheel came off Wanderers' promotion bandwagon. Horrendous hold-ups on the motorways caused scores of fans to miss the kick off and by the time they were ready to head for home, many were wishing they'd missed the entire game.

Today, Colin Todd apologised to those who were wondering why they'd even bothered.

"No excuses!" the manager insisted, ignoring the various points raised in mitigation of another deeply damaging display.

A double injury blow that forced him to switch his two top scorers into emergency midfield roles inside the first 25 minutes, a debatable penalty given against them, a cast-iron penalty appeal denied and enough clear-cut chances to have saved at least a point . . . he was having none of it!

"The players have let themselves down, they've let each other down and, more importantly, they've let the fans down," Todd said accusingly.

"I feel sorry for the supporters who travelled a long way and in difficult conditions. That was an indisciplined performance and we just didn't play as a team.

"We were found wanting and we're going to have to pick ourselves up."

It is going to be a big job and Todd knows it.

On the basis that the bigger they come, the harder the fall, star-studded Wanderers have suffered grievously this past week. And it's going to take some doing to get them back on track.

It seems an eternity since the champagne corks were popping to celebrate their September triumphs. Now the hangover is hurting - really hurting.

Some have seen it coming. Keith Branagan, sidelined by a knee injury sustained in the summer when the future looked bright, had to wait until Tuesday for his first taste of the Division One action. His return has coincided with Wanderers suffering their first two defeats of the season but anyone thinking of putting 2-1 and 2-1 together should first consider that without him last night's defeat would have been much heavier.

Those weeks in the stands have given the longest serving of the Wanderers' squad the chance to cast a critical eye and he admits to being concerned.

"I've been watching and the fact that we've scored more goals than we have conceded at the other end has not brought the real issues to the fore," he said candidly.

"But we do have problems and it is a worry.

"The fact that I'm back in the side isn't going to solve the problems we are having. I can offer a bit of experience to the lads but we've got a lot of work to do to sort things out.

"The only trouble is that, with two games a week, you don't have much time to do the work you need to do. But we are all prepared to work hard to put things right. I'm sure of that.

"We had a long talk in the dressing room and maybe losing the game last night might have brought things to a head."

It's to be hoped so. Successive defeats, culminating in a return of two points from four games has seen Wanderers' status as promotion favourites plummet. And with the Reebok showdown with Sunderland just eight days away, they need to do something significant to stop the rot. Of course it is not all about Bolton and Sunderland - a point Todd re-iterated last night - but victory over the Wearsiders would go a long, long way towards restoring confidence.

They know that when they come up against Peter Reid's team they will need to be organised, up for the battle, solid as a rock and ready to take every chance that comes their way - the complete contrast to the performance they turned in as yet another trip to Ashton Gate ended in disappointment.

They couldn't have asked for a better start against a team that had won only two of 15 games and in front of critical supporters who, by common consent, were just one defeat away from rebellion.

Arnar Gunnlaugsson started and finished the move that brought him his 11th goal of the season after just five minutes. But it was Ricardo Gardner - under par in the home games against Oxford and Watford - who supplied the magic ingredient, a delightful bit of footwork that left Scott Murray in a heap on the byline.

Had Gunnlaugsson been as clinical with his finishing four minutes later when he shot tamely into Keith Welch's hands, the Robins might have lost heart. Instead, they found encouragement and inspiration as the game turned sour on Wanderers.

Gardner's game was over in the 10th minute when he pulled a hamstring and 11 minutes later, Per Frandsen followed him down the tunnel after taking Rob Edwards' elbow in his jaw. It goes without saying that their loss had an affect on Wanderers' balance and rhythm. It certainly spurred on John Ward's men, who'd already tested Branagan's reactions.

They'd hardly adjusted - Gunlaugsson taking Gardner's role on the left, Blake operating in centre-midfield - when Ade Akinbiye made a nuisance of himself at a corner and managed to toe-poke a shot past Branagan.

There was a certain inevitability, as there has often been this season, that things would go from bad to worse and they did, when referee Mark Halsey interpreted Mike Whitlow's challenge on Danish international Soren Andersen as a push in the back. Mickey Bell, whose cross had caused the problem in the first place, converted the penalty.

For all Bristol's enthusiasm Neil Cox could easily have turned the tide Wanderers' way if he hadn't spurned a golden opportunity when he shot weakly at Welch after Bob Taylor had supplied the most inviting of lay-offs.

If Mr Halsey's first penalty verdict was debatable - Whitlow clearly didn't think it was, Todd neither but Branagan thought the ref got it right - his second was a scandal. He actually seemed to be shaping up to point to the spot when Edwards hooked Gunnlaugsson's legs from under him three minutes after the break, but he had second thoughts!

"A cast-iron penalty!" said Sky's Alan Brazil. "Edwards has just told us the ref did him a favour with that one."

The ref also did Andersen a favour when he chose not to book him for diving when he took flight in an attempt to earn City a second penalty. Branagan was not as happy man.

"I thought the first one was a penalty," he admitted. "Whits was unlucky because he committed himself totally going for the ball and I don't think it was deliberate. In fact he headed the ball but the timing of the collision went against him.

"Which was much different to the dive in the second half. I made no contact whatsoever, I took my hand away. He took a dive. It makes it worse knowing we should have had a penalty."

Wanderers wouldn't have needed outside assistance if only they'd been able to help themselves. But Dean Holdsworth missed a simple header and Cox failed again to convert a chance set up cleverly by the hard-working Taylor, whose frustration reached its height when Welch - once on Wanderers' books - launched himself to fingertip his drive over the bar.

Ward countered suggestions that his Robins were lucky to be bobbing along with a win by supplying his list of Wanderers' lucky breaks.

He had a point. In fact he had three.

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