Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony believes the EFL may have opened themselves up to legal action if teams such as Town and Wycombe, who played Bolton Wanderers during the early stages of the season when they had a weakened squad, win promotion from League One by a point ahead of clubs like his own who didn’t.
The Trotters were forced to field very young sides in the opening weeks of the season, during which time the Blues won 5-0 at the University of Bolton Stadium and the Chairboys beat them 2-0 at Adams Park, before their takeover was completed and they were able to significantly strengthen prior to the closure of the transfer window.
"If Wycombe or Ipswich win promotion by a point over teams who didn’t play against Bolton’s youth team it will be wrong,” MacAnthony told the Peterborough Telegraph.
"The EFL have potentially opened themselves up to lawsuits. The Bolton team is now stronger, they will be well coached by a top manager [Keith Hill] and they will be backed by a brilliant fanbase. The league didn’t handle the situation well.”
At the end of last month, Posh manager Darren Ferguson was also critical of the situation, stating "if Ipswich and Wycombe hadn’t both played against Bolton’s youth team we might well have been top of the table”.
Town are currently top on goal difference from Wycombe with a game in hand on the Chairboys with Peterborough fourth, five points behind having played two games more than the Blues and one more than the Buckinghamshire club.
Bolton are still bottom of the table having been deducted 12 points at the beginning of the season but yesterday’s 1-0 victory over the MK Dons, courtesy of a last-gasp Daryl Murphy goal, saw them into positive points.
Wanderers, who now have one point and are 12 from safety, could face further deductions for failing to fulfil a fixture last season and postponing their home game with Doncaster earlier in this campaign.
Yesterday, Town were paired with Peterborough in the second round of the Leasing.com Trophy with the game set to play in the first week of December, probably on the Wednesday.