Bolton Wanderers players paid overdue February wages

Bolton, who are five points adrift of safety in the Championship with 10 games to play, host Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday

Bolton Wanderers' players have been paid their overdue February wages, the Championship club has confirmed.

On Monday, a statement from the squad asked the Professional Footballers' Association to act on their behalf.

They had been told they would be paid by owner Ken Anderson if a proposed takeover was not completed by Monday.

But a club statement on Tuesday said "all outstanding salaries for players and coaching staff have now been paid in full".

It continued: "The club would now like the focus of attention to be on Tuesday's Championship game against Sheffield Wednesday at the University of Bolton Stadium."

In a further statement on the club website, Anderson said he hoped a takeover will be completed later this week.

He also thanked playing, managerial and club staff for their efforts during his three years involved with the club.

Anderson said he believes he has done a "reasonable job in trying to control costs at the club" but acknowledged the financial issues and "apologised unreservedly" for delays to wage payments.

"Cash flow has always been a problem at the club, both before and since I became involved, and if it wasn't for [former owner] Ed Davies and my limited financial support, I can assure you things would have been far worse," said Anderson.

"I understand why staff and supporters seem to believe that it's the owner's sole responsibility to just keep on personally topping up the bank accounts and pay everything and everybody, but unfortunately that's not always possible.

"Business life is just not like that and sometimes I have had to make difficult decisions that obviously don't make me popular and I can assure you that if there had been a viable alternative I would have taken it.

"That said, paying the staff salaries late once and the players twice in the three years of my ownership certainly did not sit comfortably with me and is not something I would have chosen to do in other circumstances and I apologise unreservedly to all concerned."