BOSS Jonathan Woodgate insisted he would have liked to have rested more players for Cherries’ trip to Wycombe – despite his rotated side suffering a 1-0 reverse.

The Cherries head coach made six alterations to his starting XI, with a Championship play-off place already secured.

Woodgate’s men fell to Uche Ikpeazu’s fourth-minute strike, as they suffered a second defeat on the spin.

Big hitters Arnaut Danjuma, Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke were not risked against the Chairboys and left as unused substitutes.

Asked about his team selection by the Daily Echo, Woodgate said: “I’d have liked to have rested more to be honest with you.

“If you look at it, that’s the most important thing. To have your players firing on all cylinders - the outstanding players really.

“I didn’t really want to risk players in some of the games.

“If players get injured, then I need people like Roro (Riquelme) to get minutes, I need Jack (Wilshere) to get different minutes – different players to get different minutes.”

The result means Wycombe are still not officially relegated from the Championship but need a huge goal swing on the final day next Saturday, as well as results going their way to avoid the drop.

Assessing the game as a whole, Woodgate said: “Fair play to Wycombe, he (Ikpeazu) scored an absolute worldy.

“They are going to create chances but I felt we had some gilt-edged chances, second half we should have done better.”

Cherries host Stoke City in their season finale next Saturday, before a the first leg of the play-offs on May 17.