Rovers director of football Gregg Broughton says the club will hold an internal review as the failings of their deal but insisted the ‘buck stops with me’.

Broughton fronted up after Rovers were knocked back in their bid to register Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis O’Brien and Rochdale’s Ethan Brierley due to the late submission of paperwork.

The club accept they missed the 11pm deadline but have lodged an appeal with the EFL which will be heard next Tuesday, albeit one Rovers expect will fail.

A club statement on Thursday said there were mitigating factors out of their control, but in an interview with the Lancashire Telegraph, Broughton accepts there were failings on the part of the club.

He said: “There are internal and external reasons and we certainly have to look at the internal reasons but the club just followed the process that it has done for the last eight-10 years. I’m not a believer in doing what you’ve always done and sometimes you have to challenge that.

“This has tripped us up and we certainly have to make sure that this can never happen again.

“If there are things then that are out of our hands we have to accept that, but there are bits in our hands as well and we have to take responsibility and as I said, ultimately the buck stops with me because this was a player transfer.

“I think there are internal and external reasons as to why they failed to get over the line.

“We can only control the internal bits and we certainly have to review why they failed.”

The two players have now returned to their clubs, but Broughton says both do still want to join the club providing the appeal is successful.

However, Forest are now left with a player they cannot play, with O’Brien not registered for Premier League matches, and Rochdale missing out on a five-figure fee.

Broughton says Rovers will look to address the latter, but conceded the situation could damage the club’s reputation when it comes to transfer dealings.

He added: “Of course you worry because ultimately we’ve let down two other clubs and we’ve let down two players with the process. Once the external factors become public there will be some sympathy towards that.

“But like I have said from the outset of this conversation, there were internal factors that were under our control. You can’t give other people the ability to rule something out unless you have done absolutely everything in order in your own house. That is the only bit we can control.”

Broughton said he couldn’t disclose the mitigating factors that Rovers referenced in their statement until the appeal had been heard, but would in due course.

“I don’t know if we’ll go public and write something on that but I’m very happy to come and have that discussion again and tell you exactly what the two circumstances are and hopefully once you’ve heard that side of the story, you’ll have some sympathy for us,” he explained.

“But it is really important, we are not looking for sympathy here with this case, there are internal factors with that and the buck stops with me.”