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Ian Evatt has discussed the touchline spat between himself and Morecambe boss Derek Adams in last night’s stormy game at the UniBol.
The two managers were engaged in an angry clash just before half time, which resulted in Adams being booked by referee Chris Sarginson.
Evatt defended his reaction, claiming that Adams had man-handled one of his players after a foul by Liam Gibson on Will Aimson close to the dugout.
“I guess that’s what they want,” said the manager, when asked if Morecambe had managed to get ‘under the skin’ of his side. “We just wanted to protect our own. That’s all we want.
“We want it to be a competitive football match and that’s as far as it goes really. I won’t stand for anybody handling my players.
“He was booked for that, and entering our technical area. But look, what’s said and what’s happened in the technical area should really stay in there. We really shouldn’t be precious about it so it is what it is. I’ll protect my own and he’ll protect his own and that’s the game, that’s football.
“But probably we became too emotional, especially after the goal that they scored. We got embroiled in some of the spoiling tactics when, really, we should have stayed calm and composed and just carried on doing what we’re doing, because what we’re doing was really good.”
Having dominated the first half, Bolton found themselves behind at the break when George Johnston’s mistake was punished by Cole Stockton for the opening goal.
The error caused some nervousness across the defence for the rest of the game and though Wanderers eventually snatched a point through Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Evatt admits his side needed to show more composure in possession.
“Even if if stays 0-0 until 60 or 70 minutes, eventually you’ll break their spirit because they become panicky and they start to hang on, but when you concede a goal like that, it lifts them and gives them that extra 10 per cent of energy that they need to try and hang on to the result and that’s what happened.
“We have to learn from that, it was just an out of character poor mistake and it wobbled him and wobbled us for a while but I’m delighted that they’ve got back into it because some of our play, especially first half was as good as you’ll see.”
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