BOLTON boss Gary Megson has called for his beleaguered side to "wake up" after their defeat against 10-man Wigan at the JJB Stadium.

The Latics had Jason Koumas sent off after just three minutes, but battled back admirably and Emile Heskey's sharp volley after 34 minutes proved decisive.

The latest body-blow for Megson is the shock news that his first-choice keeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, is out for the remainder of the season with back and hamstring injuries.

With Bolton having been dumped out of the UEFA Cup last week and now finding themselves in the bottom three of the Premier League, losing a player of Jaaskelainen's stature was the last thing Megson needed.

This was the start of a very big week for the Wanderers and alarm bells are now clearly ringing amid the Reebok hierarchy ahead of Wednesday night's trip to Old Trafford.

Wanderers now have a huge relegation fight on their hands and Megson labelled yesterday's display as being among the poorest of his managerial career.

He pulled no punches after losing to Latics and told his players to cut out the dressing room excuses after being beaten by Emile Heskey's first half goal.

Megson said: "We have got to stop talking about what we can do. We have lost a game to our near rivals who were down to ten men after just five minutes when Jason Koumas was sent-off.

"We rested a lot of players in midweek because of the magnitude of this game and I expected us to start better. We need to wake up, we are in the bottom three and we will stay there if we do not improve.

"It is about time we started to battle and put in real good shift. We cannot say we are too good to go down because, on that evidence, we could go down. I simply did not want to hear excuses from inside the dressing room."

With Jaaskelainen sidelined, Megson handed a Premiership debut to Ali Al Habsi. The Bolton boss added: "It's looking as if Jussi could be out of the rest of the season. We will have to see if his back problems resolve themselves but it's not looking good at this stage."

Jaaskelainen was injured during the warm-up ahead of last week's UEFA Cup clash with Sporting Lisbon.

Bolton simply did not have the heart for a bruising battle yesterday and this must be a worry for Megson. They had a couple of strong claims for penalties turned down but generally appeared disjointed and never made the most of their numerical advantage. Wanderers could have no complaints at the final outcome.

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