Bolton boss Gary Megson has reminded his players that the relegation dogfight facing them is better than being doomed to the drop.With Derby virtually down and Fulham on the brink, there are seven clubs scrapping to avoid what would appear to be the one remaining relegation place.

For Bolton, the fight for survival now starts with a must-not-lose battle against relegation rivals Wigan, managed by close friend Steve Bruce, at the JJB Stadium on Sunday.

"It's a massive game," assessed Megson. "The nine that follow are also massive, but then it's the same for everybody else around us.

"We are where we are, though. When I took over the club we were one point behind Derby at the bottom of the table.

"Now we are in a dogfight to stay up, whereas we weren't even enjoying a dog's life 18 games ago.

"We have to pick ourselves now, and we have to realise what enables us to win games and what causes us to have problems."

If playing in Europe was a problem, that issue has been removed in the wake of a 1-0 defeat at Sporting Lisbon, with the Whites losing 2-1 on aggregate.

Megson operated an understandable rotation policy for the games in Europe, and for the most part it proved beneficial.

Ten key players that did not face Sporting look certain to start on Wigan's notorious quagmire of a pitch that has been condemned by virtually every visiting manager for the last two months.

If fit Kevin Nolan, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Kevin Davies, Matt Taylor, El Hadji Diouf, Andy O'Brien, Ricardo Gardner, Ivan Campo, Gavin McCann and Gretar Steinsson should all be fresh.

"That was the idea," added Megson. "We spoke to the entire squad on Tuesday and told them what was expected of the team that would play in Lisbon, and also of the team that will play Wigan.

"I had to make changes, and if we stay in the Premier League then it will have been the right thing to do. We can all be wise after the event.

"Nobody mentioned to me when we were battered at Blackburn in the last 15 minutes, losing 4-1, it might have been a better idea to have played the more established names against Atletico Madrid a few days earlier.

"It's very difficult fighting on two fronts when you are competing in the hardest league in the world.

"So I make any apologies for what I have because when I joined this club we were bottom of the table and still in Europe.

"Everybody then was talking about the fact it was absolutely imperative for us to stay in the Premier League. Nobody was particularly concentrating on Europe.

"But once we got one or two results in the UEFA Cup and people became excited about it, suddenly things changed.

"But I don't think anybody with any knowledge of football, and certainly our supporters would accept the priority was anything other than to stay in the Premier League.

"We are where we are. The bottom line is we have to pick up the 40 points to try and stay in this division.

"Overall, we gave it everything we had, but we weren't capable of scoring the goal that would have put pressure on Sporting.

"We would love to stay in the Premier League, and also win this, but so would Everton and Tottenham and it's a lot harder for us.

"I keep reverting back to the quote of last season from Reading manager Steve Coppell who didn't even want to qualify for Europe because he knew the problems it would cause.

"We're purely and simply trying to stay at this level and move the club forward.

"The big clubs like Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, have the squads they do so they can fight on two fronts. Most haven't the finances to cope with that."

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