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Wanderers boss Ian Evatt has urged the footballing authorities to clamp down on abuse following his side’s 1-1 draw at Morecambe over the weekend.
The players were taken off the pitch in the final stages at the Mazuma Stadium following allegations of racist abuse aimed at the Bolton bench.
Evatt says these incidents are happening “more and more often” and has called on the authorities to take action.
When asked if the safety of players and coaches is a concern, he said: “One hundred per cent. We see all these fixtures – the amount of policing and stewarding that is surrounding supporters, especially away supporters.
“But some of these stadiums, the dugouts and technical areas are built into the stands so you’re literally sat with supporters. How are these supporters vetted? I don’t know. Are they checked by security? I don’t know.
“These are extremes but any one of these could have a weapon. What’s it going to take before we start bringing in more measures and being more stringent with our policies? It’s happening more and more often.
“You’ve seen it with the racism side of it, the social media side of it, people entering the field of play. It’s not good enough, it’s not acceptable. This is a family sport – I want to be able to take my children to enjoy football matches.
“Would I be taking my kids to a football match at the moment? I’d have to have a lot of thought to be honest because we seem to be going backwards. We seem to be going back to the days of the 70’s and the 80’s.
“We’ve moved on from that, society is better than that. But we have to come together and stamp it out because it’s getting worse and worse.”
Over the weekend, a fan ran onto the pitch and appeared to attack Nottingham Forest players during their FA Cup win against Leicester.
Evatt feels the current measures are “reactive” and has questioned what it will take for changes to be implemented.
“We seem to be reactive rather than proactive with all these things,” he added. “As I said, what’s it going to take for us to really stand up and make decisions and make protocols that are stringent to put people off?
“Is it going to take a player or a member of staff to get seriously injured or even worse? I don’t know.
“I’d rather see us be more proactive than reactive and at the moment it seems to be the other way round.”
The Bolton boss admits the past few days have been challenging and says some players “needed support”.
But Evatt praised the squad for the character they showed to earn a point against the Shrimps once the game was resumed.
“It has been stressful because I care about my club and my team, simple as that,” he said.
“For all these people who were making comments about our team on Saturday, if they had seen some of the players in that 10-minute interval and how upset they were, young black footballers who have never witnessed anything like that before, they needed support.”
“I know these players and their character better than anyone and I could see the upset. The information we gave them was to channel that emotion in the right way, and they did. I was so proud of the way they got that result in such challenging circumstances.
“Aside from everything else that went on, to have a player – in my opinion – unjustifiably sent off and then a penalty we save, to find a way to battle back with 10 men in those conditions is huge credit to the players.
“A lot of them are young men, really inexperienced, and I hope they never have to witness or go through anything like that again.”
Evatt insists that Saturday’s events only strengthened the togetherness in the Bolton squad and wants his players to continue their “siege mentality” in the coming weeks and months.
The Whites are unbeaten in their last five matches ahead of tonight's clash with Charlton, who are also in good form.
He added: “People and institutions are shaped based on how they come through adversity and we faced a lot of Saturday.
“The reaction we got from players, staff, the board and the wider public has been fantastic. It is almost that us against the world, siege mentality again, and it brought the best out of us. Hopefully it will in the future too.”
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