Cotterill Full Of Praise For Lennon

The Northern Irishman took the reins with the Trotters rooted to the bottom of the Sky Bet Championship in October last year, transforming Bolton’s fortunes to secure survival by ten points.

Wanderers currently lie third bottom of the table, but the City manager believes the size of Lennon’s task has been dictated by previous regimes at the Macron Stadium.

“I think Neil has done a very good job at a difficult time for the club,” Cotterill told Bristol City Player HD.

“Last year he pulled them away to safety and it’s been very tough for him this year. You haven’t heard any complaining from him – he’s just got on with the job and I think he’s done a brilliant job.

“The reason they ended up with budget cuts is because they were probably spiralling out of control.

“Some of the wages they were paying three or four years ago were unbelievable for players I wouldn’t necessarily say were top, top players.

“Quite a few of them were very well looked after and now Neil is having to pick up the pieces. I know what a difficult job that is because I’ve done it a lot of times throughout my career.”

Visitors City are targeting two wins on the spin for the first time this season, while Bolton will be hoping to welcome Shola Ameobi and Mark Davies back from injury ahead of the last international break until March.

“What you need to do is try to get back-to-back results,” Cotterill added. “If you can do that, it can propel you from where you are.

“I think they’ll probably play with a diamond – that’s what they seem to have been doing of late.

“They’ve had a couple of injuries over the past week or so, so it just depends whether they are back fit or not as they could be difference makers for them.”

Scott Wagstaff remains absent due to a lack of match fitness, while Cotterill reports just bumps and bruises following the 1-0 victory over Wolves on Tuesday night.