FOOTBALL fans are not renowned for their patience, as Phil Parkinson is finding out right now at Wanderers.

Eight games into a new season, many disgruntled patrons of the Macron are billing this afternoon’s clash with Brentford as a must-win for the manager – a sentiment echoed down in West London, where Dean Smith’s men also come searching for their first victory.

It seems strange to think dissenting voices have surfaced so quickly, considering just four short months ago we were preparing for Peterborough at home – but things change, and the Championship certainly has since last we were here.

Parkinson insists things will come good, as does his chairman and club owner Ken Anderson, who to this point appears entirely supportive.

Fixtures have been tough, on paper, but defeats against Sheffield United and Ipswich Town in the last couple of games has dented confidence across the fan-base it will all come good in the end. What price a morale-boosting win today?

Considering what graft has gone in behind the scenes to get Wanderers to the Championship, I have to say it would be a crying shame to see things head south so quickly.

Parkinson has handled the very difficult situation he inherited with integrity and assembled a team I think is stronger than the one which went down in 2016.

Perhaps if you analyse the individual components, the lack of a Rob Holding or a Zach Clough stands out. Yet looking at the group together, this is a dressing room with much more going for it than anything assembled in Neil Lennon’s rollercoaster ride.

Lenny had his own reasons to be disappointed with how things ended at Bolton but the confidence levels in the fragmented and disenfranchised squad he left behind had to be rebuilt from scratch, and that is why I think Parkinson and his staff deserve to catch a break.

Unfortunately, in the 12 months Wanderers were away from the division, tens of millions has come pouring in from the Premier League, making it almost unrecognisable. If this squad is – as the manager also claims – better than the class of 2015/16, he must also admit his opponents have stepped up in class too.

If Wanderers’ players thought this season was going to be anything other than a backs-to-the-wall scramble for 21st place, I think it was an error, and the same goes for the fans.

Watching from the wings, as I do, there is often a distinct tipping point for a manager, a moment at which you realise he is fighting a losing battle. That hasn’t happened yet for Parkinson.

Whereas the last few men in the job have seen their relationship with the dressing room wain just as badly as that of the terraces, the current incumbent is still backed very strongly by his players, and that has to count for something.

Those criticising at the moment are primarily targeting the team’s style of play, and in fairness, they might have a point.

The football has often been direct in the last 12 months and it certainly does not please everyone. Parkinson has been missing three of his more technical players – Sammy Ameobi, Josh Vela and Will Buckley – but he is yet to convince some he has the tactical flexibility to cope at the higher level. There is only one way he can answer, and that’s with results.

Whether you think last season’s promotion was the miracle it was billed as at the time, or par for the course, Parkinson did what no other manager has done since Sam Allardyce: He regularly won games.

On top of that, he did in the midst of a transfer embargo.

Back in May, Parkinson admitted Wanderers had “got away” with staying in embargo through his first season – and there are a section of fans who think the squad was comfortably good enough to achieve what they did.

One wonders if the manager would have been so jovial had he known those restrictions would remain in place through the whole transfer window as the boardroom battle between Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth dragged its heels towards a conclusion?

Furthermore, the EFL dropped an even more draconian restriction on salary caps midway through July, the logic of which has yet to be explained in a satisfactory manner to me. But it appears the timing of the call deprived Jay Spearing of a return to Bolton, and goodness knows who else.

Wanderers struggled so badly for stability before Parkinson’s arrival and have somehow kept things together despite the turmoil which has erupted with such regularity off the pitch in his 15 months. Should that solid foundation be removed, I shudder to think what the consequences could be.