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Wanderers will launch an appeal against Ricardo Santos’s red card at Blackpool – but Ian Evatt says he will pass up the opportunity of any further communication with referees this season.
The Bolton boss admitted after Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Blackpool that recent dealings with officials have “killed the love” he has for football.
Evatt will face an FA disciplinary committee on Wednesday expecting to hear that he faces a heavy fine and touchline ban after being given a red card by Jeremy Simpson in the half-time interval in the 1-1 draw at Northampton Town.
Bolton have maintained regular dialogue with referee’s body the PGMOL and its chief, Howard Webb, throughout the season and have, on occasion, even received verbal apologies for decisions which have later been proved to be wrong.
Evatt says he will not be personally pursuing any feedback after the red card issued to his club captain, Santos, in the second half at Bloomfield Road.
It remains to be seen exactly how referee Josh Smith has interpreted the defender’s challenge which led to the award of a penalty and a straight red.
Football Association guidelines state that there must have been an attempt to play or challenge for the ball in order for the “double jeopardy” rule to come into play and a yellow card be deemed sufficient.
Should Simpson have viewed Santos’s challenge sufficiently serious, his second red card of the season could be punished with a four-game ban. But it seems more likely that Bolton will be challenging a two-game suspension.
Evatt says he will distance himself from the issue and not seek any further talks with Webb or the EFL.
“I am not anymore, I am not talking to them, not speaking to anybody,” he told The Bolton News.
“I am trying to avoid doing team-sheets because genuinely, it is not personal, I just don’t know where to go with it.
“I don’t know what to do or what to say, so the best course of action is to avoid.”
Though disappointed with referee Smith, Evatt underlined that he and his players had to take responsibility for their own shortcomings on the day at Blackpool.
Asked if he could provide any rationale for Santos’s red card, the Bolton boss said: “I can’t think of any of it, logically, not one of the decisions he has made today can I think of the reason why he did it.
“It was a poor performance, there is no denying it, and we keep getting poor performances.
“All we can do is own our own selves, and if something is given against us we have to make sure next bit is done right and we didn’t.
“I am not saying in any way, shape or form that the result is the referee’s fault, because it is not.
“And that is not what we do – we own our own space. It doesn’t matter what the referee does, we have a chance to put it right.”
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