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Ian Evatt believes referee Sebastian Stocksbridge got his penalty calls spot on as Wanderers battled back from behind to claim a 2-1 win against Walsall.
Kieran Lee had cancelled out Sam Perry’s first half effort when the game was turned on its head completely by two big decisions.
Seven minutes after Hayden White had been sent off for shoving Dapo Afolayan, Eoin Doyle put Bolton ahead with a penalty after Matthew Sadler had been adjudged to have fouled Kieran Lee.
Stocksbridge then waved away Walsall’s appeals in injury time when Cameron Norman went sprawling under Lee’s challenge – producing a yellow card for the full-back for simulation.
Evatt felt the official had made exactly the right call.
“Ours is a penalty,” he said. “Kieran Lee just isn’t that type and you can see he got there first.
“I need to be careful what I say about their one. But what I will say is that there is too much of that happening, too much simulation.
“Until the FA do something about it, it will keep happening.
“It is toxic, a poison in this game. We need to make sure this game is played as fairly as possible and that includes not diving. It is a clear dive, for me.
“It is brilliant from the referee. A lot of people when people are shouting, screaming, surrounding the ref, you can easily give the wrong decision. Credit to the ref – and I don’t say that very often – he made a great call.”
Evatt also felt referee Stocksbridge was right to send off ex-Bolton defender White in what proved a pivotal moment in the game.
“You just can’t raise your hands nowadays,” he said. “The minute you do it’s a green light for them to send you off.”
Wanderers had struggled to break Walsall down in the first half, leaving Evatt to move into the stands for a better view of the action.
“We just needed to be better,” the manager explained. “We do a lot of analysis work on the opposition but I think we’re a slightly different kettle of fish to everyone else and people come up with different game-plans against us. We just couldn’t figure out where the space was. The pitch intelligence just wasn’t there.
“We had to get them in at half time to make them understand where the space was. The third midfield player needed to come away from the ball.
“We try and paint pictures to the players about where we think the space could be. Sometimes it works out to be something completely different and others the players have to figure it out for themselves.
“I don’t know whether you saw but in the first half I went upstairs in the stand for five minutes to get a picture of where the space was. At pitch level you don’t always get that clearly.
“When I got up there myself and Peter (Atherton) discussed it and the goal came from the way we switched the ball out.
“Normally, the referees are key. They take up great positions and if you are a number 10 or the third midfielder there’s always good space there. We found that solution.
“I think sometimes midfield players get attracted to the ball because they want to be on it. Sometimes you need to pull away into space. We had to switch the ball quicker with more speed and tempo and we did that second half. We deserved to win the game.
“I said to the players that it is never going to be easy now. You have a reputation and with it comes teams who spoil, slow it down, time waste, and when teams throw up different looks we need to find the different solutions.
“At half time we managed to come up with a solution and sometimes they have to do that themselves. But it’s credit to the players because they found a way in the second half, which is very pleasing.”
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Kieran Lee had cancelled out Sam Perry’s first half effort when the game was turned on its head completely by two big decisions.
Seven minutes after Hayden White had been sent off for shoving Dapo Afolayan, Eoin Doyle put Bolton ahead with a penalty after Matthew Sadler had been adjudged to have fouled Kieran Lee.
Stocksbridge then waved away Walsall’s appeals in injury time when Cameron Norman went sprawling under Lee’s challenge – producing a yellow card for the full-back for simulation.
Evatt felt the official had made exactly the right call.
“Ours is a penalty,” he said. “Kieran Lee just isn’t that type and you can see he got there first.
“I need to be careful what I say about their one. But what I will say is that there is too much of that happening, too much simulation.
“Until the FA do something about it, it will keep happening.
“It is toxic, a poison in this game. We need to make sure this game is played as fairly as possible and that includes not diving. It is a clear dive, for me.
“It is brilliant from the referee. A lot of people when people are shouting, screaming, surrounding the ref, you can easily give the wrong decision. Credit to the ref – and I don’t say that very often – he made a great call.”
Evatt also felt referee Stocksbridge was right to send off ex-Bolton defender White in what proved a pivotal moment in the game.
“You just can’t raise your hands nowadays,” he said. “The minute you do it’s a green light for them to send you off.”
Wanderers had struggled to break Walsall down in the first half, leaving Evatt to move into the stands for a better view of the action.
“We just needed to be better,” the manager explained. “We do a lot of analysis work on the opposition but I think we’re a slightly different kettle of fish to everyone else and people come up with different game-plans against us. We just couldn’t figure out where the space was. The pitch intelligence just wasn’t there.
“We had to get them in at half time to make them understand where the space was. The third midfield player needed to come away from the ball.
“We try and paint pictures to the players about where we think the space could be. Sometimes it works out to be something completely different and others the players have to figure it out for themselves.
“I don’t know whether you saw but in the first half I went upstairs in the stand for five minutes to get a picture of where the space was. At pitch level you don’t always get that clearly.
“When I got up there myself and Peter (Atherton) discussed it and the goal came from the way we switched the ball out.
“Normally, the referees are key. They take up great positions and if you are a number 10 or the third midfielder there’s always good space there. We found that solution.
“I think sometimes midfield players get attracted to the ball because they want to be on it. Sometimes you need to pull away into space. We had to switch the ball quicker with more speed and tempo and we did that second half. We deserved to win the game.
“I said to the players that it is never going to be easy now. You have a reputation and with it comes teams who spoil, slow it down, time waste, and when teams throw up different looks we need to find the different solutions.
“At half time we managed to come up with a solution and sometimes they have to do that themselves. But it’s credit to the players because they found a way in the second half, which is very pleasing.”
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