PHIL Parkinson has warned Wanderers they must get stronger, or face the consequences.

Pride stung by a 3-0 home defeat against a rampant Middlesbrough, the Whites boss admits his team have lacked a physical edge since their return to the Championship.

Boro winger Adama Traore ran amok to create two goals for Britt Assombalonga at the Macron Stadium but a disappointed Parkinson believes more should have been done to reduce his impact in the game.

“We have to do better,” he told The Bolton News. “I have told the lads a challenge which might have won you the ball in League One won’t necessarily win it in the Championship. We need to be stronger.

“I have just watched the first goal with David Lee and he said ‘as a wide player I’d have expected to be on the floor’ but we just weren’t physical enough.

“We have got to be stronger in those situations. We had four attempts to get the ball off him but he still wriggled past us and managed to get a great cross in.”

Wanderers’ lot got worse as David Wheater, Derik Osede and Stephen Darby all came away from the game with injuries which jeopardise their involvement in tomorrow night’s home game against Sheffield United.

Parkinson feels the result could have a more significant bearing on the campaign than the one against Boro.

“We know we are in a mini league and we have to beat the teams in and around us,” he said.

“We have got to keep working together, think long and hard about our team selection, because we have picked up a couple of knocks again.

“I think we have got to put them (Sheffield United) into our category. They haven’t spent £30m like Derby or Boro.

“We need to go into that game and believe we can get a result.

“We need to add those bit of extra bits of physicality to our games and I think we’ll be OK. We can’t mope. No-one likes getting beat but we have to look ahead and move on quickly.”