Bolton Wanderers boss 'can't understand' referee decision in Portsmouth loss as he rues big miss

Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt questioned why his side were not awarded a free-kick in the lead up to Portsmouth's opening goal in Monday's 2-0 win for John Mousinho's side at Fratton Park.

Conor Shaughnessy gave the home side the lead on the stroke of half time as he glanced a header into the back of the net from Jack Sparkes' corner. Prior to that, Kusini Yengi saw his shot cleared off the line as his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Nathan Baxter before Gethin Jones hacked the ball away. Pompey were given a huge let off with 28 minutes gone as Northern Ireland international Dion Charles missed an open goal from six yards after Will Norris had made a brilliant save which kindly fell to the Bolton striker, but he somehow put the rebound wide of the target.

Evatt felt that miss disrupted his side's flow, as he also expressed frustration about Pompey's opener. Yengi sealed all three points for Mousinho's side as he scored on 88 minutes and the result moves Pompey six points clear of Bolton, although Evatt's side do still have a game in hand.

Evatt said after the game: “I think that in the first half we managed to wrestle control of the game but misses like the one from Dion seemed to affect the flow of our game. It’s always frustrating when conceding right on half-time. I thought there was a clear foul leading up to the corner and I can’t understand why it’s not given.

“The second half, they put us on our toes and we couldn’t deal with it. We lost faith and belief, we rocked and wobbled, and it was very disappointing. That’s not what we are about. We are so much better than that.

“They made it very difficult for us and basically dominated on everything. I don’t think they outplayed us, but they outfought us. We’ve let ourselves down but the players have always responded when they have to. We’ve lost the game playing their way, not ours."