WANDERERS climb aboard the bus for a 500-mile round trip to Portsmouth this afternoon – but Keith Hill has told his players to leave any complaints at home.

Long-distance travel poses no problems for the Bolton boss, whose side face a quick turnaround with another away game at his former club Rochdale on Tuesday.

“Long trips don’t bother me,” he said. “Even when I go on holiday.

“My wife moans about a seven-and-a-half-hour flight but that’s like a trip to Torquay to me. I just do it in stages.

“It’s part of the process playing in a league where teams come from every corner of the country. No negative vibes there for me. It’s an honour to do it, being honest."

Hill and his assistant David Flitcroft have been working hard to keep focus entirely on the game – and though the loss of experienced centre-back Jake Wright did come as a blow this week, he is determined not to let it become the main talking point of the training ground.

Wanderers are actively looking to bring in a defender as cover but have not, as yet, found any suitable candidates.

“It is an area I would like to reinforce but at the moment we can’t,” he said. “I am not bellyaching. We are just going to make the most of it.

“We’ll do all the preparation work for that 90 minutes. If something happens before we get on that coach, okay, we can’t do anything about it. We still have that challenge of playing at Portsmouth.

“It is all about the matchday. No excuses, we have to go and play our game.”

Fans are reminded that there is no pay on the day at Portsmouth and that all ticket sales will end at 2pm today.