WANDERERS have taken a hard line with four young players for a series of controversial tweets sent within hours of Tuesday night’s derby defeat by Burnley.

Rob Hall, Josh Vela, Sanmi Odelusi and Joe Riley have landed themselves in hot water after a series of messages that were considered to be in breach of the club’s policy on the acceptable use of social media.

One of the messages sent after the 1-0 defeat, which has since been removed, contained the word “curtains” while other replies – a series of emoticons meant to express happiness and sadness – were also viewed dimly by Wanderers and a large number of our readers.

None of the players were involved in the defeat, which left Wanderers in 19th position in the Championship table and just two points above tomorrow’s opponents Millwall.

But speaking to The Bolton News yesterday, Dougie Freedman assured fans who have voiced their disapproval that the matter would be dealt with in-house.

“We are making sure it will never happen again and that they keep their thoughts to themselves,” he said.

“The young players seem to use it (social media) more than the older players and they seem to get caught out from time to time.

“The wording of it, the word ‘curtains,’ I’m not too sure what it actually means; we’ll have to ask the players that.”

It is not the first time Freedman has had to tackle issues with social media use within his squad.

A policy was introduced early last year that provided players with guidelines about their use of networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

That decision was taken following a few high-profile incidents involving striker Marvin Sordell, who is currently on loan at Charlton Atheltic.

“These young lads can get dragged into things online and the way certain words are interpreted can cause problems,” admitted Freedman.

“They get carried away and a smiley face can sometimes read to fans like ‘why are you smiling after a game?’ He could have pressed the wrong button or anything like that.

“It is not a situation I think they should be putting themselves in.”

It is understood Freedman has now spoken to each of the four players individually to warn them about their future behaviour.