JIMMY Phillips has stood firmly behind Bolton Wanderers’ decision to cancel their midweek League One clash with Doncaster Rovers.

The academy boss, who will stand-in as interim manager for tomorrow’s home game against Ipswich Town, was one of the staff pushing hard to postpone the game over welfare concerns.

He countersigned an email sent to the EFL along with the club’s two safeguarding officers and Phil Parkinson, who has since resigned as manager.

Phillips has been in charge of Wanderers’ youth section for over a decade and says he is proud to see several players get their opportunity at just 17 and 18 years of age.

But he rejects any claim that the club tried to gain an advantage by cancelling the game against Rovers, or that Bolton should be forced to risk their young players’ safety by giving them more game time than the academy guidelines recommend.

“It was completely the correct decision,” he told The Bolton News. We looked at the players and they were out on their feet.

“From a welfare point of view we have to protect them. We didn’t want to send them into a game were someone gets a career-threatening injury.

“When your body gets tired you lose focus, your touch goes, your concentration wavers, you end up in situations where you will come out the wrong side of tackles against bigger, more physical opponents.

“Twelve of the squad of 21 I have against Ipswich are straight out of the youth team – they are not fully matured. They can’t cope.

“The Premier League rulebook says they should only be playing one game a week at this stage of their career, and that’s against players their own peer group, not two levels higher.

“If we’d had a fixture list that went from Saturday to Saturday there wouldn’t be any issue whatsoever. It was the lack of rest and the young bodies couldn’t cope with it.”

Phillips was disappointed that Wanderers were forced into a decision – arguing that one of several organisations associated with the game should have spotted the potential problem and acted accordingly.

He said: “The PGB oversee the whole academy structure, the FA hold registrations, the PFA, the EFL, the Premier League who put out these rules for youth development – and not one of them stood up and said ‘Bolton might not need a midweek game because they have a young squad’.

“We can’t sign players at this moment in time under administration and we’re coping with the facts.

“It was never our intention as a football club to try and seek an advantage or give any other team an advantage in the league. We’re being as competitive as we possibly can in this league because that is what they are demanding.”