Bolton Wanderers’ 1-1 draw with Brentford on Monday means they have still only won once since Easter Monday, which is somewhat apt for a club desperately searching for salvation. Points have dried up and so has the money, with confirmation from inside the Macron Stadium just prior to Brentford’s visit that the players’ wages for November have not been paid. Amid the crisis and uncertainty, an obvious question emerges: what on earth has gone wrong at Bolton?

The non-payment of wages stems from the decision by the club’s owner, and lifelong supporter, Eddie Davies, to withdraw his financial backing for the club. Davies, who made his fortune producing kettle filaments, is so keen to see a deal done that he has agreed to write off the £185m the club owes him in unpaid loans should a buyer be found.

There is interest, most notably from a group led by the former Bolton striker Dean Holdsworth, but little sense that the club’s state of limbo, which has been ongoing for over a year now, will end any time soon. Hence a sense of grave concern at the club, which has not been eased following a meeting on Tuesday morning between players, staff, representatives from the Professional Footballers’ Association and the insolvency practitioner Trevor Birch, who was brought in to oversee the sale of Bolton last month after the chairman, Phil Gartside, had to step away from his duties having fallen seriously ill.

“We spoke to the players and they remain upbeat and committed to doing all they can to help the club through this difficult time,” said Birch. “We’re continuing to negotiate with interested parties but unfortunately no one party has demonstrated the requisite elements needed to conclude a deal yet. The club’s position is increasingly perilous and new investment is needed quickly.”

Birch oversaw the process of administration at Portsmouth and that, almost certainly, is what would also take place at Bolton should they fail to find a buyer soon, with it now clear that without Davies the club have no other major sources of funding to fall back on.

Bolton’s woes illustrate how relegation from the Premier League can hit some clubs hard. They spent 11 consecutive seasons in the top flight, from 2001 to 2012, finishing as high as sixth and enjoying nights in the Uefa Cup that saw the likes of Besiktas and Sevilla visit what was then known as the Reebok Stadium. These were the days of Sam Allardyce in the dugout, Jay-Jay Okocha on the pitch and the sense in that part of north-west England that the good times would never end.

But they did, with the rot setting in almost as soon as Allardyce left in April 2007, prior to taking over at Newcastle. From finishing in the top 10 in four successive seasons Bolton came 16th, 13th, 14th and 14th in the following four, with a host of different figures, most notably Gary Megson, filling the manager’s chair with little distinction. There were still some great occasions, such as the 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich in November 2007 and subsequent run to the quarter-finals of that season’s Uefa Cup, but the tide could not be reversed and in May 2012, under the charge of former player Owen Coyle, the club sank into the Championship.

As disheartening as that setback was, it did not have to spell disaster for Bolton so long as all at the club kept their heads and planned accordingly, and the fact Coyle was kept on as manager and Davies remained committed to putting money in the team, suggested that is exactly what would happen. Instead things got even worse.

Bolton, like many clubs before them, simply had not prepared for life outside the Premier League, seen most starkly by the fact that very few members of the squad that went down in 2012 had relegation clauses in their contracts. Bolton recorded overall losses of £50m in 2012-13, a huge amount for a club in the second tier.

This, in part, was because they had overspent during the good times, with financial figures for 2011-12 showing that even in the milk and honey surroundings of the Premier League, the club was recording losses of £22m.

Once relegated, high earners such as Marvin Sordell and David Ngog were shipped out as quickly as possible – more often than not for a fraction of what had been paid for them – but the debts continued to mount, with the club now losing approximately £1m a month and no longer able to fall back on parachute payments. In the meantime, and as a direct result of the need to further cut costs, the quality of the team has steadily fallen. Neil Lennon’s side currently sit bottom of the Championship with few observers giving them hope of avoiding a second relegation in four years. A large number of fans certainly appear to have given up hope if the crowd of 12,371 that turned up for the visit of Brentford is anything to go by.

“Bolton have endured grim financial times before, especially in the early 70s when they nearly went out of business, but this is a particularly serious situation,” said Marc Iles, chief football writer for the Bolton News. “It’s causing worry across the whole town.”

Despite now residing in the Isle of Man, Davies will be aware of this as a proud Boltonian who first watched his local team play in 1958, the year Nat Lofthouse’s goals secured the FA Cup. But he no longer wants to put his money where his loyalty is and, having propped up Bolton for so long, few can blame him.

The hope must now be that a new buyer can be found as soon as possible. The alternative is too bleak to consider for a club which finds itself on its knees having stood tall for so long.