Ian Evatt fumes at Portsmouth's controversial opener in Bolton Wanderers draw

The Blues went ahead through Aiden O’Brien who tapped in from close range in the 50th minute, before Kieran Sadlier’s 76th minute penalty shared the points.

In the build up to Danny Cowley’s side’s opener, the former Sunderland forward appeared to be offside following a Joe Morrell ball in.

However, the midfielder’s ball into the box took a deflection off Wanderers defender George Jones with the rules stating a player can come back from an offside position if an opponent touches the ball.

Pompey then reset on the edge of the box through the ex-Millwall man and Marcus Harness, before the winger’s ball in from the byline found the 28-year-old close to the penalty spot.

After the game, the Bolton boss questioned the rulebook and the offside rule but understood the reasoning referee Marc Edwards gave to allow the goal.

Speaking to Manchester Evening News, Evatt said: ‘I completely understand what the officials are saying because the rules are the rules, but the rules are wrong.

‘I was a defender, I was a centre-back, and you’re aware of people in offside positions and what it does do is it affects your decision and even if they don’t make a play at the ball, you know they’re there and you’re stretching or rushing or making a bad decision to try and prevent them from getting the ball.

‘That’s exactly what happened. The player in the offside position has affected our players’ decision. It ends up being a poor clearance and it ends up being a goal so we do have to look at that.

‘If they do have an impact, they don’t have to have an impact by necessarily touching the ball or physically going for the ball, but if they’re stood in the vicinity of a player and can affect their decision then for me they’re offside and probably something we need to look at with the rules.

‘I think it’s happened a few times, I’ve seen it on the TV quite a lot and it does impact you, especially as defenders because it’s a natural thing to clear a ball when someone is in and around you.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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