BLACKBURN Rovers boss Owen Coyle admits a chance to play in the English Football League Trophy could benefit the club’s promising young players.

It is understood the Ewood Park outfit will be offered a place in the revamped competition if six of the initial 16 category one academy clubs invited to take part decline.

And Coyle, who watched Rovers’ Under-21s beat League One side Oldham Athletic 3-0 in a behind-closed-doors clash at Brockhall on Wednesday, said: “At this moment we’ve not had an invitation but if we do we’d certainly look at it on its merits.

“From a football perspective there is no doubt it would help a number of our young players, who I watched yesterday.

“We played a behind-closed-doors game against Oldham and the kids acquitted themselves terrifically.

“The way the young kids went about it, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the game, and there were one or two who have a chance.

“We’ll certainly give them a platform to progress, which Blackburn Rovers have always done, so who knows, a competition like that might serve them a very good purpose.

“But we’d have to have the invite first.”

Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea are said to be set to snub the offer to compete in the EFL Trophy.