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Ian Evatt felt Burton Albion were let off the hook for timewasting tactics in their New Year’s Day game at the Toughsheet Stadium.
The Brewers frustrated the home crowd in the first half by slowing the game down, with referee Darren Drysdale appearing to issue a warning to their captain, John Brayford, at one stage.
No visiting players were cautioned, however, and Burton were able to keep themselves on level terms until defender Jasper Moon put the ball past his own keeper six minutes into the second half, changing the complexion of the game.
Evatt was one of many managers to voice concerns about the amount of time being lost to timewasting last season, after which the PGMOL issues instruction to their officials to crack down – leading to some lengthy spells of injury time in the early months of the current campaign.
Three minutes were added to the first half of Monday’s game, and four in the second, which led the Bolton boss to question whether the refereeing directives were still being applied.
“We had long conversations with Howard Webb in the summer about dealing with that quicker,” Evatt said after the final whistle.
“We shouldn’t be waiting for the second half, 80th or 90th minute before we deal with it – it has to be nipped in the bud. Once you do, you make that decision, it warns everyone off continuing with it.
“My bugbear has always been that it doesn’t matter if it is the first minute or the last, timewasting is timewasting.
“I have no issue with Burton doing it. They are away from home and this is a difficult place to come. They are entitled to do it, to push the boundaries, and that is why we have officials to deal with it. They didn’t today.”
Josh Dacres-Cogley created the winning goal with some clever work on the right, his near-post cross bouncing off Moon and past Max Crocombe.
The former Birmingham City wing-back has played 2,493 minutes of football this season, more than any other player aside from keeper Nathan Baxter.
And Evatt has been delighted to see him keep ticking despite a heavy load of fixtures over the festive period.
“He had some good moments, second half in particular he was excellent,” he said.
“The way he just keeps going, he is so robust, he is like the Duracell Bunny, really.
“It was a bit of luck with the goal but as I have said many times, hard work puts you where good luck can find you and I don’t think anyone can argue that we deserved to win the game.
“We had 21 shots to their four. Our XG will be through the roof. The only disappointing thing for me is that we didn’t take that other chance to make it more comfortable, however, I didn’t feel like we were in any danger.”
Wanderers’ next two games will be in cup competitions, starting with a Sunday trip to Kenilworth Road, Luton, in the FA Cup. After that their defence of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy continues at Accrington Stanley.
Evatt felt it was important to give his squad some time to rest at the start of this week to allow some batteries to be recharged.
He said: “Players have earned a couple of days off now, they will spend some time with their families, resting and recuperating. It’s almost their Christmas break, so to speak.
“Myself and the staff will start to formulate a plan to try and go and be competitive at a Premier League stadium.”
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