Freedman feeling the pressure as Bolton round the proverbial corner

Yes.

And, before you keep reading, the other answer is also yes, Dougie Freedman has been feeling the pressure after the rough start Bolton Wanderers have had this season.

Both pressure from the club (he's most likely felt a lot) as well as pressure from himself. I mean, who likes to lose? Freedman is in between a rock and a hard place with the Wanderers right now. The same team he started the season with this year was the one who got so close to the playoffs last year, warranting the question: what went wrong between then and now? With money not something that Freedman can easily access, he's been forced to be creative with the players that we can afford.

The past two draws and single win, a wave of new loan signings and an overall better performance from the squad has calmed down the fans that seemed so eager to pressure Freedman but I don't think there was every any possibility that he would lose his job, no matter how many games we lost. Our present situation isn't Freedman's fault, he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. The mistakes of previous managers as well as a horribly kept financial situation have finally broken this club in a way that takes more time to fix than normal.

New win aside, Freedman should and still will feel the pressure. We're not a club that will settle for one win and be happy and our manager of all people knows that. At he same time we as fans should know that one win doesn't mean we've been miraculously fixed. We've still got the same issues and injuries we did a week ago, we're just improving on them now. That's the thing that everyone has to bear in mind. There's no quick fix here for us and Dougie is working as hard as he can to make the proper improvements, but bear in mind these are actual human beings he's dealing with. One week might be worse than others, but we'll get there eventually. Patience is key, and no one can say we haven't had loads of that this season (but hey, here it is paying off because we've gone and won a match!)

The most important thing though, is to have faith in our manager. A year ago we were all elated to have him come to us and we hoped (and maybe even knew) that he would be our solution. And yet, here we are with people constantly calling for his head (I'm looking at you, #FreedmanOut bedsheet), or for a player's head, when I really do think they're trying their hardest. I have no problems switching players around, but you cannot just toss managers aside for new ones like an old kleenex. It's the constant changing of managers that ends up perpetually messing up a club and that is NOT what we need right now. We need consistency and we'll get that with Dougie.

Things might have been bad up until now, but with each step Dougie Freedman is taking Bolton Wanderers are slowly inching their way up the fixtures table and with a season as long as this one, who knows what could happen next.