PHIL Parkinson hopes he will not need a running commentary from Fleetwood’s game against Port Vale because his side will have the job at hand.

It was left to goalkeeping coach Lee Butler to hand the bad news to the Wanderers boss last week at Port Vale, as Fleetwood’s late winner at Gillingham forced the promotion battle into the final game.

But there will be no phones, laptops or transistor radios in operation tomorrow lunchtime, with Parkinson confident the Whites can keep their destiny in their own hands.

“I don’t want to have to think about anyone else’s result,” he told The Bolton News. “I’ll reiterate what I said last week, and I anticipated Fleetwood would beat Gillingham. I was absolutely prepared for it.

“Yes, the news came late in the game and it was a disappointment that such a good performance hadn’t been enough on the day, but we play as well as that again and there’s nothing anyone can do on Sunday.

“The great thing about the result was that we played well and won, and also that it eliminated two good teams from the equation in Scunthorpe and Bradford. We could have been going into this game needing to keep eyes on three other teams.

“When you’re up at the top end of the table you should expect the top teams to win. If you’re scrapping down the bottom maybe you get a few second chances but we’re up here because we have got results.”

Parkinson and his staff walked through the doors of the Macron Stadium last summer into a club which was reeling from relegation, inheriting a squad bereft of confidence. But for a two-week dip in September he has kept the club in the top six places for the entire campaign despite being hamstrung by a transfer embargo.

If Wanderers achieve promotion – they would be the first to do so with such regulations in place from the Football League from this division.

Parkinson is wary of speaking too soon with a job still to be done against the Posh – a side he rates as “dangerous” with the pressure off completely.

But he admits the achievement of finishing second, given all the obstacles in the last nine months, would be considerable.

“With everything we’ve gone through it would be a fantastic achievement for everyone,” he said. “Once the season has finished I can probably sit down and do a good interview about all the details.

“Look at teams like Fleetwood and Scunthorpe, people think they are small clubs but they have spent considerable amounts of money to get to where they have.

“We’re delighted with where we are, we’ve just got to finish the job off and we’re looking for a big performance from the team.”

Financial problems have hit the headlines on plenty of occasions as Ken Anderson and Dean Holdsworth came to terms with the club they bought, its baggage, and the reality of working together at the helm. It has by no means been an easy ride for anyone involved, not least the manager, but Parkinson believes communication with his players has eased the process and prevented problems.

“Along the way at times it has made headline news but we’ve tried as much as we could to block it out,” he said. “It’s all we can control.

“We’ve had meetings along the way to explain things to players. I think that’s really important. I’ve got experienced players who understand the situation and they just want to be told what is going on.”