"It's difficult," said the Trotters skipper. "We were expecting to be at the top end and it's been a difficult couple of years for us as a club.
"There's been a lot of changes. I didn't expect us to go down from the Premier League, I thought we'd be okay, and it's difficult to take.
"We've got a fantastic squad and we've missed key players - Stuart Holden, Lee Chung-Young and David Wheater - but we hold no excuses. We've got a good enough squad and we shouldn't be where we are - but we are.
"It [relegation] has not been mentioned, but it's frightening to look after the result against Watford and see how close we are down there. It's quite scary.
"But we'll stick together, will keep working hard on the training ground and everything is in place; the squad, the manager and it's a fantastic club.
"We've just not managed to put anything together this year; no back-to-back wins and it's been very inconsistent really."