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Wanderers have found themselves involved in a ref row after their 2-0 defeat at MK Dons.
Ian Evatt said after the final whistle that he had been unhappy at a comment made by match official Sebastian Stocksbridge as the two sides went in for the half time interval.
He claimed that the club would officially address the matter on Saturday evening – but The Bolton News understand that there will be no comment, as things stand, with Wanderers’ viewpoint passed on in writing to the referee’s assessor.
Stocksbridge had previously taken charge of Wanderers once this season, sending off Ricardo Santos in the 3-0 defeat at Fleetwood. He was also fourth official in last weekend’s game against Wimbledon, after which Evatt had claimed referee Rebecca Welch had received "no help” from her colleagues on the day.
Speaking after the game, Evatt said: “We will release something later but for now I need to speak with the officials and the assessor. The fourth official heard it and the referee has apologised at half time but that is not good enough, it is not acceptable, and we will be taking it further.”
Evatt felt his side were denied a penalty for handball – and there were also appeals from Bolton players that Mo Eisa had handled the ball in the build-up to the opening goal of the game.
“It clearly hits his hand which is above his head,” Evatt said of his own side’s penalty appeal. “I’ll deal with the officials after but for now we’re not happy.”
Wanderers were beaten by goals from Eisa and Scott Twine having not looked at their best in the early stages of the game.
A mistake from keeper James Trafford gifted Twine his 10th of the season, sealing the points after what had been a close contest to that point.
“I think the first 20 minutes and a moment of madness in the second half has cost us the game,” Evatt complained. “I think other than the first 20 minutes, we then controlled it for probably 25 minutes. Second half I think they’d gone, I think we’re starting to completely dominate and it was a matter of time and then we just pressed self-destruct and then it was game over.
“We’re better than that. We looked a little bit jaded like it’s been a long month and probably MK are the worst team to play in the eighth game of eight games in a month because they test you physically, but I don’t think we were in any way inferior to them. I think other than 25 minutes first half, we didn’t quite figure out what to do and how to press and how to get pressure on the ball, but once we did that there was nothing and no dangers really.
“We just had to score. We hit the bar with Baka and probably should score, had a chance with Dion, should take a touch and score and then second half we were in complete control. It’s all us, our fans are getting excited and then we just pressed self-destruct.” Wanderers made three changes from the side that had beaten Lincoln City on Tuesday, with Kyle Dempsey, Amadou Bakayoko and Ricardo Santos all coming into the starting line-up.
“MK test you defensively and we needed to play the extra midfield player to give us that defensive security. Jon looked jaded and hadn’t played a lot of games,” Evatt said.
“Kyle came in for Dapo and Rico was going to play anyway, he’s our captain.”
Wanderers are seven points off the play-off spots but Evatt maintains that they are still in with a shot of catching the top six if they can produce a positive reaction against Gillingham next weekend.
“We feel we have a strong squad now,” he said. “We are excited to get them on the training pitch because there is loads we can improve on.
“I am just disappointed with the manner of the way we lost the game. Just when we were getting back into it, we self-destructed, and it is disappointing.”
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