Parkinson hopes good times are ahead for Bolton

Bolton manager Phil Parkinson is hoping for a bright future for the club and a miraculous escape from relegation after a 2-1 victory at QPR.

Amid financial problems and unpaid wages, second-from-bottom Wanderers gave themselves a fighting chance of staying up by winning at Loftus Road.

Goals from Will Buckley and Callum Connolly secured three potentially crucial points and it is hoped that a takeover will be rubber-stamped next week.

Parkinson said: “These players have been through a lot and there was another episode with the wages this week.

“But they’re an honest group of professionals who stuck together and represented the club in a way which is befitting.

“In any walk of life, if you go to work and there’s a concern about your wages coming in then it can affect morale.

“We spoke about that at length with the lads and I feel we’ve done our bit in terms of the responsibility of trying to lift the training ground.

“It’s a big week for the club and we really hope for some positive news and that the club can have a stable platform to go forward.”

Millwall losing to a late goal at Leeds meant Bolton’s win took Parkinson’s side to within five points of safety.

Parkinson added: “Obviously it’s important that other teams have lost, but we’ve said ‘Let’s block everything else out and perform as well as we can to keep our credibility’.

“I feel we did that. I’m absolutely delighted with the win and the performance level.

“I spoke to the lads about putting things to one side and putting in a performance where the morale is lifted when we come into the training ground, and I feel we did that.”

QPR manager Steve McClaren bemoaned the defensive lapses which have contributed to a dismal run of results and they were evident again for both goals.

After Luke Freeman, who had earlier hit the post, gave the ball away, Buckley was on hand to score after keeper Joe Lumley had parried Josh Magennis’ header.

Another parry by Lumley, this time in keeping out Sammy Ameobi’s shot, presented Connolly with his goal

Nahki Wells’ left-footed strike pulled a goal back for Rangers with nine minutes remaining but they were unable to find an equaliser.

They have lost 11 of their past 14 Sky Bet Championship matches, won just once in the league since Boxing Day, and are not completely safe from relegation.

McClaren said: “We had 60% possession, 33 crosses, 21 shots – we did enough to win two games of football there.

“But we didn’t, (conceded) two bad goals and that’s our problem – we can’t keep conceding goals.

“It was our strength when we had a good run in the middle of the season and got to eighth in the table. We were hard to beat.

“It’s frustrating for everybody. We can keep saying it wasn’t our day, but it certainly wasn’t. The run’s not great at all.

“I can see and the crowd can see that the effort is there, the endeavour is there, we’re just making mistakes and getting punished for them.

“At the moment we need to score two or three goals to get a result and that puts pressure on the forwards and defenders.

“We have to solve it. The only way to do that is on the training ground.”