Gary Goes, But Parky's Defiant

BOLTON boss Phil Parkinson has challenged his players to confound the doom-mongers following the sale of star striker Gary Madine.

- Chris Dunlavy

 

With the Trotters winless in 11 matches at the start of the campaign, Madine scored ten goals in 29 games to haul them out of the Championship drop zone.

But Parky’s men will now have to find a new source of salvation after the 27-year-old completed a £6m deadline day switch to Cardiff.

“I’m disappointed because I always felt we’d keep Gary,” admitted Parkinson, who received news of Madine’s departure in a 5pm phone call on Tuesday.

“The chairman (Ken Anderson) was confident. But, as January went on, the bids from Cardiff went up a lot. In the end, the club had to make a judgement call.

“I didn’t want to sell Gary. I’ve said that several times and I said it again on Tuesday. But, equally, I’m not the one who has to pay the wage bill.

“All we can do is fight on. After the start we had, everyone wrote us off. Bookies even stopped taking bets on us going down, but we got ourselves back in the pack.

“After selling Gary, I’m sure people will write us off anew but we’re a resilient group and we’ll prove everybody wrong again.”

Vulnerable