Allardyce angry as 10-man Bolton hold on for point
Sat 14 Jan, 8:52 PM
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BLACKBURN, England (AFP) - Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce claimed referee Mike Riley nearly caused a riot after sending off his side's Japan star Hidetoshi Nakata during a bruising goalless Lancashire derby draw away to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.
The former Roma, Parma and Fiorentina midfielder was dismissed for two bookable offences in the first half of this fractious match, although his second caution looked harsh.
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Even so, Bolton could have no complaints at being short-handed as Joey O'Brien escaped with a yellow card after a wild and dangerous studs-up lunge on Ryan Nelson.
Nevertheless, Allardyce insisted afterwards: "I see it like this. Hidestoshi Nakata committed three fouls and got sent off; Robbie Savage committed three fouls and didn't get booked, that's nothing against Robbie Savage. The statistics don't stand up unfortunately when Mike Riley referees us.
"Give me a minute and I will just prove what the referee has done and what he's done in the past. He's refereed us seven times and we've had five players sent off, four in the first half," he also told Sky Sports.
"Those stats say it all, it's blatant inconsistency - in my opinion simply not good enough. The statistics speak for themselves.
"He's nearly caused a riot here today when our fans decided to jump over the fence. I don't think that's caused by players, it's caused by some of the refereeing.
"It's nothing against Robbie Savage, or any Blackburn player - you just look for consistency. Then it gets out of hand and the referee loses control, and there are people flying all over the place.
"We've done very well to keep our heads."
Bolton had the best chance of the first half as Lucas Neill's mistake let in Kevin Davies but Blackburn keeper Brad Friedel was quickly off his line to smother the striker's low shot.
Rovers came within a whisker of taking the lead two minutes into the second period as Brett Emerton's header hit the underside of Jussi Jaaskelainen's bar before bouncing away to safety.
Six minutes later, O'Brien came to his team's rescue to head Steven Reid's threatening cross away from the danger zone with two Blackburn forwards lurking behind him.
From the resulting corner, Paul Dickov was presented with a chance two yards out in the centre of goal, but it came quickly at him and he could not react quickly enough as the ball hit his shin and bounced wide.
Highly-rated Portugal youngster Ricardo Vaz Te should have put the 10-men in front with 20 minutes left but after rounding Friedel, his standing leg slipped away from beneath him just as he went to slot the ball into an empty net.
It looked embarrassing but in truth there was little Vaz Te could do about it on the slippery surface.
Blackburn laid seige to the Bolton goal in the dying stages and the Trotters were indebted to Ivan Campo who cleared Nelson's header off the line with 10 minutes to go.
what a pillock he really is !!