BOBBY Robson had no sympathy for Sam Allardyce as he left the Reebok after seeing Newcastle claim a victory that put them fourth in the Premiership.

Picking out the dismissal of Jussi Jaaskelainen on the hour for handling outside his area as the turning point, the 69-years-old former England chief reckoned Wanderers suffered because they did not have an goalkeeper on the subs' bench.

Robson did not know it but with experienced number two Steve Banks ruled out after dislocating his finger and youth teamer Chris Williams also injured, Allardyce had scoured the markets in vain, unable to land a loan keeper he felt he could rely on.

Nevertheless, he was emphatic when asked if he would ever gamble in similar circumstances. "No! I would never do that," he said. "I'm not telling Sam his job but it's Murphy's Law, whoever Murphy is. It was bound to happen.

"But if it happens and a young keeper has to play, then what a wonderful experience for him. But Sam chose otherwise and the last thing he would think would be that his goalkeeper would get sent off ...

"We were in front but it (the sending off) had a dramatic and important effect for us. Obviously when that happened the game went our way because from the resulting free kick, Laurent (Robert) knew all he had to do was hit the target and he did. At 2-0 with an understudy goalkeeper, who was not a real understudy, it was probably academic with our experience. We used the ball well and had chance after chance. In fact we got a bit careless with some of them.

"We could have been 2-0 up at half time with the chances we had but we just made the dismissal pay."

The Geordies' boss did not share Allardyce's views of the officials either, although he did whinge about Craig Bellamy being harshly booked for kicking the ball away when he was trying to score.

"That was a harsh booking because the player was only doing what he is told to do but I thought the ref did all right because the crowd were obviously going to swing him towards Bolton, booing him off at half time and booing him when he came back on again. But he kept his nerve and in my opinion the referee was good."

Robson did, however, suggest Wanderers have what it takes to beat the drop.

"This was their third defeat on the trot at home," he acknowledged, "but they've had a marvellous start and I still see them as pretty durable.

"I think they've got sufficient points to do what they want to do and stay in the Premiership. But the pressure to stay up there is intense.

"It would have been painful for Bolton to have suffered a heavier defeat than 4-0 but it could have been. Four was bad enough but for 20 minutes at the start they looked quite lively. Rob Lee and Gary Speed were at full stretch to contain the midfield but after that it was okay."

Then, without even a hint that the officials might have blundered and suggesting there was not a shred of doubt over the incident on which Allardyce felt the game hinged he added: "Shearer did well for the first goal. He couldn't score so he just nodded it back."

Not a mention of offside!