DOUGIE Freedman hopes Saturday’s incredible 5-1 victory at Leeds United is proof that the “dark days” are behind Wanderers.

While the Scot refused to get too carried away with the club’s third consecutive win and their biggest-ever victory at Elland Road, he acknowledged that the result was one of the most pleasing in his managerial career.

Freedman had come under major fire at times this season as Wanderers failed to mount an expected play-off push.

But the manager thanked those who have stuck by him during a rebuilding period, claiming that his plan for the club is now slowly starting to come to fruition.

“This is not an easy job but I love what I am doing,” he told The Bolton News. “It’s a dream for me to be standing on the touchline for a club with the history of Bolton Wanderers and trying to put a plan together. And I do think we’re starting to get somewhere.

“This was a very good result but unfortunately it’s only three points. But of course, it’s great to have scored nine goals in two games.

“I’ve always spoken about my plan and what I wanted do here but there have been some dark days when I’ve stood in the freezing cold with you guys and we’ve all been disappointed.

“Bolton fans that have been coming to the games can see things are starting to come together.

“So this result ranks highly for me because it means people can start seeing what I want to do. And it’s just the start.”

Wanderers had five different goalscorers on the day – Joe Mason, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Zat Knight, Mark Davies and Andre Moritz – and scored five away from home for the first time since beating Leicester City 5-0 on the opening day of the Premier League season in 2001.

It is a far cry from the difficult start made to 2014, where calls for Freedman to be replaced as manager were mounting with each successive week.

The manager believes his side have earned a run of good fortune.

“Luck is something you only get when you work hard,” he said.

“I’ve got a responsibility to the fans to keep working hard and made sure the players do that when we turn up at work on Monday morning.

“Yes there have been dark days when we were getting beat but I found there are too many people with opinions that don’t watch us.

“There were some disappointing results but the performances were always close and if we just stuck to what we were doing, it would change.”