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Ian Evatt reckons referee David Rock got two major calls wrong in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday.
The Wanderers boss maintained that Hertfordshire official should have shown Owls defender Dominic Iorfa a second yellow card for a foul on Kieran Lee.
And Evatt also claimed Rock got it wrong when he booked Dapo Afolayan for diving in the second half, as the winger went to ground claiming a penalty.
Iorfa had already been cautioned for a foul on MJ Williams when he brought Lee down on the edge of the box in first-half stoppage time.
“We had highlighted last week in the Liverpool v Manchester City game how costly those decisions can be,” Evatt reflected after the game.
“On the edge of the box Kieran Lee flicks it over his head, he’s running in on goal into the penalty box and how it isn’t a yellow card I have simply don’t have an answer for that.
“There are lesser tackles on the pitch in different areas, not on the edge of the box, that were penalised with a yellow card, but because Iorfa’s on a yellow and it’s Hillsborough, we don’t give it and it affects the game because they couldn’t sniff the ball with 11 men, so if they’ve got 10 men imagine what we could do them? Those fine margins and decisions we have to get right.
“Dapo is then booked second half for simulation. And it is a clear foul, we have watched it back three or four times. It is an absolute clear foul as he’s about to shoot on goal. We can’t get that wrong.”
Asked if he was going to seek an explanation from the officials, Evatt added: “It’s irrelevant and I’m not going in to see them because that’s irrelevant as well.”
Wanderers had 12 shots at goal but put only one on target, which was the fifth time this season they have failed to score.
Evatt maintained that the football his side played on the day warranted a better result.
“The players are gutted, devastated, and rightly so because tactically, technically, physically there was nothing wrong with that performance. The only thing wrong with it was taking our opportunities.
“We can’t get down. It’s a difficult one because we’re down with the result but not down with the performance. We have to have our belief and confidence that if we keep performing to that level and standard we will blow teams away and we’ve seen that regardless of opposition we can do that. We’re capable of that. We’ve lost out today and you don’t always get what you deserve in football, today we didn’t get what we deserved.”
More than 3,000 Wanderers fans made the trip to South Yorkshire and Evatt hoped they would take some positives from the game.
“They were absolutely brilliant and I’m equally as frustrated as they are with not winning the game but it’s been a long time since any Bolton Wanderers team has gone away from home to these big clubs and performed like that,” he said.
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