PHIL Parkinson is praying for a positive resolution to today’s High Court case to enable him to breathe fresh life into his squad.

Wanderers were beaten 5-2 at Rochdale in the Carabao Cup and lost centre-back Liam Edwards to an ankle injury.

Promising pair Dennis Politic and Ronan Darcy scored their first goals for the club at Spotland, where Bolton’s youthful side once again showed their fighting spirit.

But Parkinson admits without an immediate injection of new signings to help them along the chances of staying in League One look remote.

“The situation has got to be sorted out,” he said after the game. “We have enjoyed blooding the youngsters but what we saw tonight – that’s it. There’s nothing else to come in.

“The senior players are back but there’s only two outfield players available at the moment and that’s nowhere near enough to give us any chance of staying in the division.

“Everyone has been preparing for the court case, it has taken over as I thought it would.

“We all need a lift tomorrow. We have had great support, the lads have been terrific, but it’ll only go on for so long, then the frustration will creep in. We have all done our bit keeping the credibility and the pride in wearing the shirt, so now this group of players need a boost.”

Wanderers took a 2-1 lead against Rochdale but faded in the last half an hour.

The club has another spell of three games in 10 days, starting with a trip to Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

“I think for 60 minutes I was very pleased and the start of the second half was excellent, we upped our game in that period, got the goal, and I was disappointed to concede the second,” Parkinson said.

“After that it looked like a tired, young team and I think the fatigue caught us out a bit. I don’t think anyone can fail to understand that watching the game – it was an almighty effort at the weekend and then tonight.

“There were a lot of good points, the two youngsters getting their first goal for the club and we looked a lot brighter in attacking areas, whereas we hadn’t created a lot in the last two games. We looked dangerous going forward and particularly Ronan and Dennis looked a real threat.”