WANDERERS have made a few too many unwanted entries into the record books in recent years, and Phil Parkinson is in no mood to make his own.

The current run of seven league games without a win from the start of the season represents the club’s joint-third longest wait since the first Football League ball was kicked in 1888.

Failure to find three points against Ipswich Town would put the current team out on their own in third – but if there is some solace to be found from the sombre statistics above, it is that relegation only occurred in two of the seasons mentioned.

The Whites have suffered from perpetually slow starts in the Championship under three different managers, as Parkinson joins Dougie Freedman and Neil Lennon in getting the new season blues.

“It is a concern, without a shadow of a doubt,” he told The Bolton News. “We have conceded a lot of soft goals, I think the intensity of our performances have not always been as high as it should have been. And that’s why we find ourselves in the position we’re in.

“I am not going to keep going over the same issues – they are what they are.

“Teams around us have spent money but it doesn’t alter the fact we should be doing better than we are right now.

“Elements have been against us but I felt the other night against Sheffield United that there was a change in our attitude and if we can take that on now into the Ipswich game, and even step it up a level, then that win isn’t far away.

“A lot of the lads are getting belief they can play at this level and they just have to keep going.”

Parkinson is now free to bring through the likes of Alex Perry, Jake Turner and Jeff King into his squad after the EFL confirmed they are now out of a transfer embargo.

They may be held in reserve for next Tuesday’s Carabao Cup game against West Ham United at the Olympic Stadium but another youngster Parkinson is keen to see more from is on-loan Newcastle striker Adam Armstrong, who had a difficult night against Sheffield United in midweek.

“He looked frustrated at times but he’s a young player and he’s just got to keep working hard and it’ll come,” he said.

“We have got a few young players learning with us and Adam really wants to score goals, you can see it in him. I think he will, he’s just got to keep going.”