WANDERERS skipper Liam Bridcutt admits the feeling of disappointment from Saturday’s 7-1 hammering at Accrington Stanley will be hard to shift.

Though Keith Hill’s squad tried to push through the pain on the training ground this week there is no doubting that the drubbing handed out at the Wham Stadium has dented the pride of most involved.

Bridcutt counts himself in that number – and he knows the hurt from Bolton’s heaviest-ever defeat at this level of football could linger for some time to come.

The midfielder has been here before; part of the Sunderland team hammered 8-0 by Southampton in October 2018, he even had the misfortune to score an own goal that day at St Mary’s.

So when he describes the Accrington result as one of the lowest points of his career, Bridcutt is deadly serious when he says the pain will stay with him.

“The bad games always stick with me,” he told The Bolton News. “Everyone always says you’ve had good games or been consistent but they aren’t the ones that stay with you.

“I remember a day like that at Southampton with Sunderland. That was as near as I have been, I think.

“From now until the end of the season we can’t think about putting in another performance like that. We need to get back to winning ways and being solid, defending right, getting the basics right.”

More than half of the total attendance at Accrington was made up of Wanderers fans, which made the humiliation all the harder to bear.

Bridcutt has no complaints with the criticism they offered on the day, or since, but feels it is still within the players’ power to get them back onside quickly.

“Ever since I stepped into the club on day one the fans have been brilliant towards me and the lads,” he said. “They know the situation the club is in and they are going to give us the lift to go on and do great things.

“We have to realise we’ve got an opportunity here to become heroes, getting the club back to where it should be.”

Wanderers’ next game will be at home to AFC Wimbledon, which now takes on extra significance given the Accrington result.

The Whites are two points behind their next opponents with three games in hand. And Bridcutt believes an immediate response is necessary to allow the team to start atoning for their previous performance.

“The next game is key now,” he said. “We work hard day in day out in training and the manager has been unbelievable to get us to the level we’re at. We owe him, the club and the fans a big performance.

“It has to be a win to get the fans back onside. We need to say sorry.

“The work the manager has put in off the pitch, he’s been brilliant with the lads, given us everything.”