BLACKBURN Rovers today quashed transfer speculation linking Midlands-born Marlon Broomes with a move to First Division promotion rivals Birmingham City.

There have been suggestions that Birmingham, and possibly their neighbours West Bromwich Albion, are interested in taking the 22-year-old central defender back to home ground.

But Ewood chief executive John Williams and manager Tony Parkes both played down the possibility of such a move.

Williams admitted he had heard of the links with Birmingham, but stressed there had not been any bid from St Andrews.

"Despite the speculation we have not had an approach from anyone for Marlon," he said.

And Parkes added for good measure: "It's news to me but, in any case, I could not see us selling a player like Marlon to a team higher than us in the First Division at the moment."

Broomes, fit again after surgery and aiming to challenge for a recall to the first team - he was on the bench on Saturday - has been rated by all the recent Ewood bosses.

And it would certainly take a very big offer to tempt Rovers to think about parting with him.

Meanwhile, manager Parkes had no complaints about Saturday's result, admitting that Bolton fully deserved to win.

And he stressed that they had to get back on track as soon as possible after three successive defeats in League and Cup competitions.

He also revealed that Matt Jansen had missed Saturday's game because of injury and slapped down any suggestions that he had gambled on Ashley Ward's fitness.

"We were well beaten," admitted Parkes. "They did to us what we did to them at Ewood. We played very well against them at home but they turned it round on Saturday.

"Bolton were deserving winners - no complaints.

"We have to get the team back on the road very quickly. We haven't done very well away from Ewood. We have been quite strong at home but we must do better away.

"Credit to Bolton, they looked a good side.

"We had a good 15 minutes just after half-time, when we had a bit of pressure, but we are obviously disappointed we didn't get anything from the game."

Jansen, who had scored Rovers' goal against Newcastle in the FA Cup, missed out because of an ankle injury which he picked up in training towards the end of the week.

That prompted Parkes to hand a surprise recall to Ward, who had been out since Boxing Day with a shoulder problem.

The striker has been back in full training but without a game even at reserve team level.

Parkes, however, did not feel it was a gamble to start with him.

"Not really, he was all right. He wasn't injured and I thought he did okay," said the manager. "I didn't think it was the wrong decision to make."

The travelling fans were also puzzled when Damien Duff was substituted but Parkes revealed that the winger had suffered one or two slight problems during the week.

"He just came off as anyone else might have done at 3-1 when we were trying to change it to get back in the game," said Parkes. "Even Damien doesn't play very well in every game and he was a bit quieter than normal. He'd had a few problems during the week."

Rovers' Academy sides clocked up two impressive 1-0 victories over Liverpool at Brockhall.

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