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Kyle Dempsey’s disjointed career with Wanderers continued with a red card at Cambridge United – but Ian Evatt refused to condemn his midfielder.
The Bolton boss had to bite his lip when discussing the performance of match referee, Darren Drysdale, adding only that the eight yellow cards the official had dispensed to his players was “crazy”.
Dempsey accounted for two of those bookings and – in Evatt’s view – the loss of the former Gillingham man 15 minutes from the end of the game stopped the Whites from going on to win it.
“Kyle is really disappointed,” the manager said. “He has had a stop-start time in his time at Bolton, had a few nasty, niggling injuries, but I thought he was excellent before the red card.
“I thought he was driving forward, picking up second balls, which you have to dominate when you are away at Cambridge, so I was pleased with him. It was just unfortunate that he got two yellow cards.”
Evatt was also booked by referee Drysdale, who was leading the EFL’s first ever all-Armed Forces officiating team.
“I don’t really need to speak too much about how the game was managed,” Evatt said. “For me, I was very disappointed.”
Wanderers had to change their style slightly in midfield to avoid being dragged into a battle and Evatt felt the game was starting to turn in his favour before the team was reduced to 10 men.
“It’s all about the opposition really and how they set up,” he said. “I think on tight pitches away from home, the more short central passes we make, it triggers their press and to jump on and they are going to try and counter us.
“We lost the game that way last season, so it was more looking to the solutions of the third line, how can we overload their back line with our players. Not playing direct but playing forward passes, being more progressive and slightly more pragmatic especially first half, and then eventually the game opens up.
“I thought it was starting to open up for us second half when we were in the ascendancy, but the red card changed it.”
Wanderers also lost the services of striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson on the morning of the game through illness. Evatt hopes he will be available for next weekend’s game at Fleetwood.
“Jon was ready to play,” the manager explained. “But at half past 11 this morning, he had a really strong fever and we had to leave him behind and keep him in bed so it is unfortunate for him because he had trained really well all week, but he’ll be back hopefully at the end of next week.”
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