SPEAKING on behalf of the local media – it would be a joy to see Wanderers players sticking two fingers up in our direction as they celebrated survival in May.

Club captain Darren Pratley took a swipe at the negativity that has been portrayed around the club of late, insisting players will use it as motivation to climb away from the bottom three. I genuinely hope they do.

The midfielder’s words would have had more impact had they not come after a 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, leaving the Whites seven points from safety with two wins in 27 games, but it is nice to see some spark.

It would have been nicer still to see Wanderers build on an encouraging performance in defeat at Sheffield Wednesday with a result at the City Ground.

But after Ben Amos became the fourth Bolton player to be sent off in the last four years in this fixture, conceding a penalty converted by Nelson Oliveira, there was only one winner here.

Oliver Burke quickly made it two, and from there we worried it could be a Trent Bridge style cricket score. Wanderers did rally and defended stubbornly until Ward got a goal his performance had deserved seven minutes before the end.

Pratley spiked at suggestion the players have used the recent financial issues as a crutch, admitting on one hand that it would be a “miracle” to escape the bottom three but also that it would come as great satisfaction to ram the words of some back down their throat.

Having exhausted all other options – perhaps it is time for someone else to play the bad guy? If a few three and fours in the match ratings are going to inspire that, then count me in.

In reality, Alistair Campbell would have failed to put a positive spin on the nightmare this season is becoming. Neil Lennon certainly can’t; his post-match appraisals have invariably become a list of individual errors that have contributed to his side’s downfall.

More than 500 fans followed Wanderers down to the Trent on Saturday, so the players certainly cannot question the backing they have been given from them.

Nor indeed can the manager. While there were calls for the manager’s head they haven’t reached anything like the volume experienced by Dougie Freedman, now sitting in some luxury in the Forest dugout.

The Forest boss described his former club has a “wounded animal” before the game but his side wasted little time putting the Whites out of their misery.

With a fluid front four of Ward, Oliveira, Burke and Ben Osborn it is hard to see why the East Midlanders have struggled for goals this season. This wasn’t the cautious, over-complicated brand we had come to observe so often under Freedman in his two years at the Macron.

Mistakes and nerves were evident from the off. Dorian Dervite tripped over the ball after 17 seconds, Rob Holding put Amos under pressure with a poor back pass and Josh Vela dwelt in possession and gifted a chance to Osborn. Why this was the case after such a positive reaction to Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat at Hillsborough is anyone’s guess.

Dean Moxey’s mis-hit cross-field ball signalled the charge for the penalty on 10 minutes. Dervite was too far up the pitch and Ward nipped in ahead of Wheater – who didn’t know whether to make the challenge or drop back – before being felled by Amos, who had himself been unsure how quickly to advance.

It was dithering, it was avoidable. But when Oliveira slotted past sub keeper Paul Rachubka, it was oh-so familiar.

Vela had been sacrificed, showing his annoyance by chucking his jacket at the back of the dugout.

One became two, and when Wheater allowed Ward to wriggle free on the left his looping cross was headed home with aplomb by Burke, ahead of Moxey.

It looked bad but the best thing to say about the next hour of football was that it didn’t get worse.

Wellington Silva fizzed one shot just over the bar but the solitary effort Wanderers put on goal came from Gary Madine, an isolated presence for much of the game, and that was after 87 minutes.

The Whites dug deep with 10 men and rode their luck at times. Ward hit the bar, slid two shots just wide of the post and had another palmed away superbly by Rachubka.

The only sight we have had of the stand-in keeper was in a friendly at Motherwell at the start of the season but his experience was to prove vital in Wanderers ensuring this didn’t become an embarrassment.

Wheater limped off midway through the second half and will now miss the next six weeks according to the manager. He hadn’t had a good afternoon but had been by far the most consistent member of the squad, so his absence will be felt.

Neil Danns came into the action at right-back, allowing Holding to move into the middle – his natural position.

The youngster has shown he can handle football at this level but up against a clever player in Ward, he was out-foxed for the third goal, in truth the least the former Derby County man deserved.

At the risk of appearing overly-negative, Wanderers can be praised for digging in. They defended “reasonably well” according to Freedman in his post-match assessment.

Lennon’s view was straight from the hip.

“We never gave ourselves a chance,” he fumed. “They are inconsistent and that’s why we are bottom of the league. We can’t put two performances together for some reason. We prepared them the best we can but you can’t legislate for individual basic mistakes.”

Whatever the headlines, however positive backing is from the terraces, or honest the words of their manager – the only ones capable of getting Wanderers out of trouble are the players themselves.