Salford City boss Neil Wood admits he is unsure if George Thomason deserved a red card at the conclusion of his side's 5-1 loss to Bolton Wanderers and admits Luke Bolton perhaps should not have been on the pitch anyway at that point.
Brandon Thomas-Asante put the visitors in front last night at the University of Bolton Stadium, but Wanderers equalised through Elias Kachunga. Jon Dadi Bodvarsson ensured Wanderers went into the break ahead.
Kieran Sadlier added a third after half-time, before Liverpool loanee Conor Bradley came off the bench to score a stunning fourth. Dapo Afolayan scored a late fifth before George Thomason was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Luke Bolton as the Whites booked their place in the second round in style with a 5-1 win.
READ MORE: Bolton Wanderers player ratings vs Salford City - Jones, Lee, Kachunga & Bodvarsson good in win
Reflecting on the dismissal towards the end, Wood admitted his own player perhaps should already have been given his marching orders and felt Thomason went for the ball but mistimed his challenge. The Ammies boss pointed to the difficulty of the tie with the strong side Wanderers put out and the reinforcements they could summon from the bench.
Wood said: "I think Bolts shouldn't have been on the pitch anyway, he should have got a second yellow, so I think he was lucky to get away with that. I'm not sure if it was a red, it was a late tackle, but I think the lad went for the ball and it was a little bit mistimed.
"We went ahead, we started off a little bit shaky. They came with a high press and once we settled down, we kind of got our way into the game and we knew that we could cause some trouble down the sides so that was our plan to go down the sides which we scored through Brandon with a great finish.
"Probably the equaliser we didn't set up right from the quick free kick and we weren't set up right. Our organisation was wrong, people were in the wrong positions and that cost us.
"We knew before the game it was going to be a tough game. Bolton are a good team, they've got a very good squad to challenge for good places in League One and you could see even when they made changes, both to the starting line-up but also when thy made the subs, it kept the performance levels high and that's probably the difference.
"It's a strong squad and there's good footballers there. We knew it was going to be a tough night and we knew it was going to be hard for us to get anything from the game."
Don't miss a thing from the club you love! For all the latest updates on Wanderers, sign up to our free newsletter packed with all the latest news here.
READ NEXT:
