PHIL Parkinson conceded that Wanderers “did not help themselves” as they slipped to a dismal 3-0 home defeat against Nottingham Forest.

Pressure is building on the Bolton boss, whose side have won just one of their last 10 games and have now scored just twice in seven.

After Joe Lolley had given Forest a half-time lead, Lewis Grabban recovered from missing a penalty to score twice, including another spot-kick.

Wanderers registered just one shot on target over 90 minutes and looked well beaten by a side which had not won on Bolton turf for 40 years.

“We didn’t take care of the little things in the first 15 minutes,” Parkinson said. “They scored the first goal on the break but after that I thought we did okay.

“Unfortunately against a team of that quality you are vulnerable on the counter attack and they showed it tonight. They broke on us and at times we were a bit naïve in allowing it to happen. Other times they had such tremendous quality in those situations.

“They have spent £30million and you can see they had class. We can’t say we played great but we did come up against a team at the top of their game and we weren’t as good as them, obviously.”

Wanderers’ best chance to get back into the game came either side of half time but aside from a Josh Magennis header which was blocked en route to goal, there was little to cheer for the home fans.

“We gave the ball away too cheaply but equally when they broke they looked a very dangerous team,” Parkinson surmised.

“At the start of the second half we looked bright. There was a possibility of getting back into the game but the more we chased it, the more we looked vulnerable on the counter attack.

“People always say throw that extra striker on, throw that extra attacking player on, but you lose the shape of the side and you get punished.”

Grabban won both penalties, the first after allegedly being tripped by Mark Little, the second by Ben Alnwick. And though Parkinson had complaint with the score, he disputed the decisions from Hampshire ref Andy Davies.

“Forest have had quite a few pens this season and the second in particular looks like he (Grabban) bought it,” he said. “At the time it was clear to me that Ben Alnwick went to ground but pulled out of it, and he (Grabban) almost took another step before he went down. I was surprised when it was given.

“The ref has himself said he made a mistake on the first one. But I have to review it.

“But we have got to help ourselves as well. We were too edgy on the ball.

“After the first 10-15 minutes, when we calmed down, we strung one or two passes together, we got into some dangerous positions ourselves. We just lacked that composure on the ball.”

Parkinson made five changes to the team which drew at Rotherham United, one of which was confirmed just half an hour before kick-off.

Pawel Olkowski was replaced by Mark Little, the manager later explaining: “Pawel had a stomach bug yesterday. He was set to play, looked fine, but he took a turn for the worse.”