Standard of refereeing slammed after another baffling decision made during Bolton v Oxford

The standard of refereeing has again been slammed after yet another baffling decision was made this time during Bolton v Oxford.

Referee Ollie Yates’ performance came under the spotlight, with the Trotters faithful questioning some of his decisions on the day. A total of seven yellow cards were handed out, five of which were for Oxford.

Evatt spoke only very briefly on Yates’ showing, but it was clear that he felt the performance could have been far better than what was on display.

He said: “I’d rather not speak about referees, but for me, that performance wasn’t good enough.”

This was given as a free kick instead of a corner. It doesn’t even surprise me anymore 🤣
pic.twitter.com/acejBMSrAV

— The72 – We Love the #EFL (@_The72) October 30, 2022

On what planet is this not a yellow card? Literally under the nose of the ref as well. #BWFC pic.twitter.com/tl3pFkgPdX

— David (@dBWFC1) October 29, 2022

Djavan Anderson netted his first goal since a transfer deadline move from Lazio as Oxford United beat League One playoff contenders Bolton.

Ciaran Brown and Steve Seddon also scored for the first time this season to end the Trotters’ bid for a third successive league victory.

With Oxford boss Karl Robinson serving a one-game ban, first team coach Craig Short had been directing operations on the sidelines.

Anderson pressed ahead and bundled the ball home after 25 minutes to put Oxford in front.

Brown brushed aside Conor Bradley’s challenge before making it 2-0 with a 20-yard left foot drive seven minutes after the break.

Bolton hoped to produce another great escape when Dion Charles scored his sixth goal of the season from Bradley’s pass after 73 minutes.

This didn’t happen however, having recently done so against Accrington and Burton.

Six minutes after scoring, the Trotters conceded a third goal as substitute Seddon headed home following a Lewis Bate cross.

“I just think we’re naive as a team,” Ian Evatt told The Bolton News. “I look at all the opposition and Karl (Robinson), and I admire his honesty, he was talking about gamesmanship and the way they managed the game and at least he’s owned it, which I appreciate.

“But we don’t do that. We’re naive. We don’t buy fouls, so to speak, we don’t draw the referee’s attention to some underhand tactics in our penalty area. We’re just happy to defend naively and hopefully that’s good enough.

“That just comes from experience really, but as a team in general I think we’re improving in that department. But I still think there’s loads to learn, the dark arts of the game.

“I’m not saying I want us to be a team good at dark arts, no I don’t, because I don’t believe it’s the right way to go, but I think we can manage things better.”

On his side picking up 10 points from a possible 21 during October, keeping a playoff spot, Evatt accepts that performance levels have not been entirely to his satisfaction.

“We just need to be loads better than we have been in the last month and we can be in all departments,” he said. “We can’t be deluded and say things have been really good and we’ve been playing really well because we haven’t, especially this month.

“I think there’s loads more and better performances to come, but what I will say is we’ve found a way the last couple of games in particular to win when we’re not at our best. Today we couldn’t and got found out, but we’re still sixth, we’re still in the top six and that’s where we aim and want to be and I still think with 30 games to go, there’s loads more to come from this group.

“All is not lost. We’re obviously disappointed but we have to manage the highs and the lows. We’ve had a couple of highs, and now we have to manage today’s low and come back stronger.”

Karl Robinson praised his players for their tactical intelligence as Oxford United won 3-1.

“The important thing is not to celebrate this win too much, it’s about backing this win up on Tuesday night,” said Robinson.

“The grit’s always been there, we always put our bodies on the line – with this team, I’ve never questioned that.

“I question luck or refereeing, but I feel the consistency in our performances hasn’t really changed.

“The amount of detail that went into this game tactically, and they took it on board.

“It’s one of the best performances in taking information on.

“It’s a tremendous three points and it’s important we back that up on Tuesday night.”

This is what fans said with the standard of refereeing slammed after another baffling decision made during Bolton v Oxford…

@Jatkinson922: One of many bad refereeing yesterday

@bwfc_elliot: You know it’s a bad decision when you’re confused how they’ve given the free kick instead of angry

@Wanderer1980: He was the worst I’ve seen at our place this season. Got nothing right. Lines people didn’t help at all #bwfc

@jamie_davison1: At this point they’re just guessing at decisions as they go along 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

@stews4ourz12ntn: Why, in spite of many so-called reforms, new overseeing boards, are referees decisions becoming more and more substandard? We all make mistakes, that’s human, but week in week out it appears to be the norm.

@maffoo12: I was baffled when I saw it live, and seeing the replay has just created more questions than answers.

@redman_aiden: Our ref this weekend played advantage for Sunderland and then pulled it back for a Luton free kick when we lost the ball 🤣

@DanGambles: The refs in league 1 this season are on a different planet

@BProbes: Welcome to League One refereeing! Every single game, every week is the same.

@OhWankyWanderer: The ref Ollie Yates was by far the worst we’ve seen all season at Bolton. That’s really saying something. He made several decisions worse than this. @EFL sort it out! Absolute shambles.

@kianb_: Something needs to be done about this, it’s not only us that it happens to, it’s the majority of games across the EFL each weekend, see so much on here about it, it’s embarrassingly bad
@EFL

@Farnee92: The worst refereeing performance I’ve seen in a long long time and we’ve had some stinkers

@PD_1972: He set himself upto fail in the first 10 when he didn’t book the Oxford lad who took Charles out as he was breaking away! Very poor display.

@DemBlades85: Its kinda funny, kinda infuriating

@jonnytheshrew: That’s shocking!!

@N77BWFC: Many shite decision’s that game to both sides 🤦‍♂️

@michaelswann2: I’ve seen some shite but that’s up there

@BwfcGoals: This is crazy! Add to the fact he twice (once for each team) shook his head and then gave a foul 5 seconds later after a bit of moaning. He completely lost the game. One of the worst we’ve had #bwfc

@MatthewRushton7: If there’s any clip that sums up how shite the officiating is in the EFL, it’s this

@callumbwfc2: it’s bolton we get a shite ref every week

@studarnell: The refs are so shit it’s almost unbelievable! I don’t like VAR but L1 bloody needs it !

@_HansYolo1: Genuinely not surprised. Comical at this level.

@adamgriffiths98: Never in all my life seen a referee be so obviously bad. You’d get sacked if you was this bad at your normal day job

@_AidenCollins: Just shows the level of officiating in football these days especially in league 1

@George_bishopp: Funny it’s not just Derby, the standard of refereeing in this league is a joke

@Jack_OSullivan1: Never been a worse standard of refereeing 🤦🏻‍♂️

@chriscork1989: In all honesty you had to laugh just how terrible that referee was he was absolutely ATROCIOUS he lost the game in the first 8 minutes…. #BWFC

@SteCarson: One of many baffling decisions yesterday #bwfc

@RCcfc90: This is really poor..

@AndyFoulkes09: Every. Week.

@HarryBWFC_: We only get shit refs

@ben_dallimore: The ref see another player or something?

@teslauci: It happened right in front of his assistant and yet he didn’t correct him. The assistants at this level contribute very little