Bolton Wanderers picked up a point on the road against Port Vale after playing for almost an hour with 10 men.
Wanderers could have taken the lead early on but Dapo Afolayan's effort was parried wide by Jack Stevens. But the Whites were reduced to 10 men when Ricardo Santos was shown a second yellow card.
Santos was shown his first following Nathan Smith going to ground from a corner. But controversy followed with his second booking by referee Ross Joyce which appeared to be harsh after Ellis Harrison appeared to go to ground easily.
After the break, Aaron Morley called Stevens into action with a fantastic save. The Valiants were the more dominant side but Trafford came to their aid with a sublime stop from Harrison as Wanderers held out to claim a point.
After the game, Wanderers boss Ian Evatt - who was shown a red card at the break in the tunnel by the referee - gave his immediate reaction to the draw and here's what he had to say.
What’s your assessment?
“I’m so proud of my team. 10 men for the best part of an hour in this heat, absolutely outstanding. It speaks volumes that their keeper has got man of the match and we’ve had 10 men for an hour in scorching conditions. I’m super proud of how we went about things. We’re a good football team and we’re open, we’re expansive, we’re attacking, we cause teams problems, but I’m more proud of that today than I was Salford on Tuesday or Wycombe on Saturday because when you’re that type of team, you get labelled a soft touch and you get labelled soft and flaky but there was none of that today.
“If this team starts fighting like that the rest of the league’s got problems, simple as that.”
Have you got a problem with a red card and one for Santos?
“Yeah and I don’t really want to speak too much about what happened in the tunnel because we will be making a report to the FA and PGMOL. Rico’s is, honestly, we’ve all seen it back and it’s absolutely astonishing.
“It just baffles me that we can be on the end of that much of a poor decision. To be honest, it was the fourth official that gave it and this is what really infuriates me because it’s the inconsistencies of when fourth officials get involved and when they don’t. If you're not sure, knowing that Rico’s already on a yellow card, you cannot make that decision. It’s so incorrect, it’s just wrong and we’ve all seen it, we all know it’s wrong, but I’d rather not speak about that anymore to be honest and just speak about how satisfied and happy I am and proud of my team.”
Any injury concerns?
“Just tiredness. Real fatigue. We still probably had the better chances other than Traff’s brilliant save in the second half. Their keeper made one and we have had some good opportunities in transition and counter attack."
Do you see that spirit and resilience? Is that what you've seen today?
“I am delighted for them – how couldn’t you see the resilience?
“When you are an in=-possession team, an attacking team, you get labelled outomatically soft and flaky. This group of players are not that. And if they start fighting and grinding out results like that then they are going to be a really difficult team to beat.
“This team doesn’t lose very often. That’s three since Wigan in the January. We are all of a sudden a difficult side to beat and I am gutted because it is a game I think we could and should have won – but it was out of our hands in the end.
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