Coyle Can Only Talk About The Ref After Defeat

Bolton Wanderers concentrated on commenting about the referee in his post match interview after his side lose 3-1 at Swansea City.

Gardner ruined his side’s chances of picking up a point after he picked up his second booking and got sent off after tugging on Dyer’s shirt.

The referee had no option but to show the first yellow card to Gardner after he made a number of fouls early on, so they were the correct decisions. Maybe Coyle should blame Gardner for silly fouls, and his side’s poor display for the defeat rather than reflecting blame away from himself and his players.

Coyle said:

‘I think the second yellow card, in fairness, Ricardo Gardner has tugged Dyer back. I think we all accept that normally results in a yellow card,”

‘The first one I wasn’t sure about in terms that it was such an innocuous foul. I think it was the first yellow card awarded in the game.

‘I think there might have been a couple of challenges where the referee felt he let them go, but that was the first free-kick against him so maybe the referee thought it was persistent fouling, I don’t know.

‘It felt like two soft yellow cards, but that’s the nature of the game now. But having said that, (Neil) Taylor in the first half clearly pulled Mark Davies back and it went unpunished. I think ultimately we want a bit of consistency in the game.

‘(At the ) end of the day, it’s not for me to sit here and get myself into trouble but there’s enough good judges at the game who can make up their own minds as to what transpired.’