James Trafford believes Bolton Wanderers skipper Ricardo Santos should not have been sent off in the draw against Port Vale but feels the Whites are really coming along away from home.
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.
The Manchester City loanee admitted Wanderers were pleased with the result, having been down to 10 men for around an hour, but that it could have been three points. In his view, Santos should not have been dismissed, but was pleased with how the team defended as a whole and their organisation.
He said: “To be fair we were quite pleased with the result because we have played pretty much 60 minutes with 10 men on a really hot day, on a really big pitch, like nobody has ever said.
“We battled well and we were upbeat. We thought we should have been ahead – the ball went in but we don’t know why they didn’t give a goal. It is a point but we should have got three.
“In my opinion it isn’t a sending off but I am not a ref, maybe they know more? The ref has a decision to make and we needed to get on with it, which we did.
“We just got told to narrow up a bit, play one up top, try to defend and create some chances either with a set piece or through transition, and we did.
“The gaffer put good messages into us at half time, the rest of the staff did too, like Gillo, and we followed them well.
“When we got the sending off it was a bit of a shock. They had some glimpses in the game but it wasn’t anything too much. Once the skip got send off it was just about getting to half time at 0-0 and then reorganising and going again.
“We brought Slim (Will Aimson) on and we were quite organised in that second half. I thought we defended well."
Wanderers have two points from their opening two League One away games, having to dig in to pick up draws versus the Valiants and Ipswich Town to add to the home win over Wycombe. The home clashes for Bolton take care of themselves up to a point, Trafford thinks, but he believes they are coming along now on their travels.
He said: “The home games take care of themselves to a certain extent. Away from home I think we have been good, especially with the support we get – to see them today packing out the away end, they were so loud and it was all you could hear, even second half when I was down the other end.
“I think we are really coming along."
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