Referee leaves Mowbray fuming after Boro’s loss

Bolton opened the scoring in the second half through Chris Eagles, but Boro quickly replied as Kieron Dyer’s headed effort flew past Adam Bogdan. Jonathan Woodgate was sent off after giving away the penalty that Sordell netted to seal Bolton’s eighth straight home win, to the delight of Freedman.

“It was a very good team performance,” said Freedman.

“You’ve got to remember that we’ve played three very intense games in a week, so to hang on and dig in is what’s getting us in the top six.”

Middlesbrough manager Tony Mowbray was unhappy with the referee’s performance after defeat officially ended their play-off challenge.

Woodgate was adjudged to have taken down Chung-yong Lee for the penalty, and was then given a second yellow card after his professional foul on Sordell. Mowbray was not pleased with those decisions and believed his players should have taken something away from the game.

He said: “I thought we deserved more than that and we needed a better official to referee the game because there were some bewildering decisions out there today.

“The penalty was one of them and the sending-off was certainly one of them.

“Bolton started the game well, which they always do but I thought we had a decent foothold in the game and then they got a goal through a cross which just drifted in, but that’s the way our luck has been going at the minute.

“I thought we were the better team but the history books will show that we lost. They won’t show that we conceded a lucky goal and then a penalty, which having seen half a dozen times was never a penalty kick, but that sums up the referee’s performance.”

Bolton: Bogdan, Ricketts, Knight, Dawson, Alonso, Lee, Pratley, Medo, Eagles, Craig Davies (Eaves 72), Sordell (Butterfield 87). Unused substitutes: Lonergan, Ream, Hall, Vela, Lester.

Middlesbrough: Steele, Hoyte, Rhys Williams, Woodgate, Halliday, McEachran (Emnes 59), Smallwood, Dyer (Bailey 69), McDonald, Carayol, Ameobi (Bikey 66). Unused substitutes: Leutwiler, Main, Miller, Haroun. Woodgate.

Referee: D Deadman (Cambridgeshire).