THE start to the New Year was a bit different as I travelled to Hull with the Lancaster Whites.

The pick-up was from the bitterly cold Unibol stadium, early enough for a steak and ale pie lunch in a charming 17th century coaching house, the Green Dragon at Welton.

A famous regular there was Dick Turpin, who was arrested on the premises in 1738.

Then it was on to the KCOM stadium to be greeted with the news that the only change was the return of Gary O’Neill for Joe Williams.

Hopes were high of getting something out of this match after the confidence-boosting performance against Stoke.

How wrong could we be? The day took a decided turn for the worse when the referee’s whistle went.

We reasonably held our own in the first half but did fall behind to a sloppy goal, which should have been cleared.

At half-time, Phil Parkinson appeared to make a positive move with the substitution of defensive midfielder Marc Wilson with attacking midfielder Erhun Oztumer.

This went spectacularly wrong as it only succeeded in opening our defence up and Hull City ran riot in the second half, as their fans sang ‘You’re getting mauled by the Tigers!’

No Bolton fan would disagree with that and a few joined in.

In the end 6-0 flattered Bolton and the referee only added one additional minute of extra time in what could only have been an act of mercy.

Gutless and spineless are some of the more printable comments from an angry Bolton crowd by the end.

There can be no excuses for this performance and no time should be wasted in coming up with any.

In total contrast to Saturday’s performance against Stoke when everyone put a shift in, it is difficult to find anyone who did put a shift in this time, and that includes the management.

Action needs to be taken to sort this mess out at whatever levels are necessary, be it board, management or player level.

Football can a funny game at times but on this New Year's Day it wasn’t funny.

Maybe it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

It was certainly a big straw. Our financial predicament may limit what can be done at the moment but it does not prevent some wheeling and dealing to try to improve our situation.

Come on Mr Anderson, sort it out.