SAM Allardyce warned today that the fear of failure could cost Wanderers a place in Europe.

The Bolton boss admits he has a tough task restoring the confidence of his players after a miserable run of results that has already seen them fall spectacularly out of Champions League contention and is now threatening their prospects of a UEFA Cup place.

Even the fallback of the Intertoto Cup, which the Whites have applied to enter as a contingency, could be in jeopardy unless they can produce a significant improvement in the remaining eight games of a season that promised so much and seemed to be on course for a record-breaking success at the turn of the year.

"Very shaky indeed," was how Allardyce described Wanderers' prospects of qualifying for Europe after Saturday's 4-1 derby defeat at Manchester United.

"At the moment the lads are not getting to grips with the basics and until they do that we are going to struggle for results.

"I think there is a little bit too much fear in the players at the moment. The fear factor clouds the vision; it clouds the decision-making. I don't know why they are so fearful, but perhaps they are frightened of failure now because they've done as much as they've done and have come so far and are frightened of failing at the final hurdle.

"We're on a bad run and we are struggling with ourselves and our form at the moment, and we've got to try and get out of that as quickly as we can and get back on the winning track, no matter what it takes."

Wanderers, who still have to go to Chelsea and Arsenal, have taken just eight points from nine games and suffered four demoralisingly heavy defeats on their travels since they ended 2006 on a high with five successive wins.

And, although he did not expect a win at Old Trafford, the manner in which they conceded three of the four goals against the team he now believes will go on and win the Premiership title, prompted the manager to launch a stinging attack on his players.

Highlighting that the first, second and fourth United goals all came from Wanderers' own set-plays, he ignored the shower of accolades on man of the match Cristiano Ronaldo and two-goal Wayne Rooney, and insisted that Wanderers were their own worst enemies.

"It wasn't Manchester United's brilliance or their skill, but our own players not doing their jobs properly," he said.

"I don't care what anybody says about how talented his player is and that player is. It wasn't that. It was just us gifting them three goals and that made the game easy for them.

"We would probably have lost "

Allardyce is frustrated that the international break means he will be unable to work with many of his players until the Friday before the next game - against relegation-haunted Sheffield United a week on Saturday.

"Sheffield United becomes a make or break game for our season now," he said.

"We need to get back to winning ways in that one to instil come confidence back into the players and push on from there.

"I just hope all the players come back without any injuries."

One player who will definitely miss the Sheffield United game is Ivan Campo, who picked up his tenth booking of the season at Old Trafford and now serves an automatic two-match suspension, which also rules him out of the Easter Saturday game at Wigan.