The Pressure Mounts On Owen Coyle. How Much Longer Does He Have?

Going into this season, Bolton Wanderers effectively targeted an average of two points per game in order to grab promotion come May 2013. Six games into this season already the team now have a mountain to climb as their point total thus far is just over half of where they should be. Bolton are in 15th place on seven points with seven points separating them from Blackburn Rovers at the top of the table. No one can really be sure how much longer Owen Coyle has at the helm of Bolton Wanderers but if results continue, it will not last.

Coyle spoke earlier in the day about how he is maintaining his cool about his managerial future and about how he knows this team can turn the results around, saying:

"As regards myself, I know what we can do and I know the players we have. If ever there comes a time that somebody thinks that should be their decision, so be it. I've never worried about that in football."

"My concern is making sure the players are working their socks off for Bolton Wanderers, which they've done and they've come off the wrong side of some terrible decisions."

We hope they can and they do. Personally, we want nothing more than Owen Coyle and this Bolton squad to succeed and reach the Premiership once again. However, it's no secret that patience among the majority of the fanbase is growing increasingly thinner. A report out of the daily mail suggests that the relationship between Coyle and Gartside is becoming increasingly strained but we're not sure exactly how much actual truth is in that.

At the moment, Bolton's poor results are not a factor of poor tactics or planning. Instead, it is individual mistakes that are doing the club in. Earlier this season, and well into last, it was the starting lineups and the substitutions that brought the questions and carried the blame for poor results yet in these last three matches (Hull City, Watford, and Birmingham City), it is the mental lapses that lead to opposition goals. For those games, Owen Coyle chose the correct starting setup for what he had to work with. What he can't control is Adam Bogdan misjudging the flight of the ball, defenders knocking their own goalkeeper over, or the referee awarding what was not even close to being a penalty.

Who knows though, maybe the luck will finally turn in Bolton's direction and they can string a few results together. At this moment in time though, it doesn't seem like the Trotters can get six points back-to-back at any part of the season.

And if the management decides to part company with the manager, who do they bring in? Alan Curbishley is the betting man's favorite to take the job and does that really sound better? What about if the manager hunt is delayed and Wanderers are forced to have an interim, are you more confident with Sandy Stewart or Steve Davis leading the line?

Everyone in and around the club knows that the results have to improve. We just hope that this current team can do it.