BURY manager David Flitcroft has called on the Football League to establish professional referees in every competition.

The Shakers boss was left fuming after Jeremy Simpson awarded Wanderers a debatable penalty in the sixth-minute of second-half injury time in last night’s Capital One Cup tie.

Craig Davies equalised from the spot and Wanderers eventually made it through to the second round with a 3-2 win after extra time.

The late drama led a clearly frustrated Flitcroft to call for a revamp of refereeing immediately after the game, and he repeated those demands in a press conference today.

“We haven’t been beaten by Bolton, we have been beaten by a poor refereeing display,” he said.

“I don’t know where those six minutes (of injury time) have come from - I have not seen that for a long time.

“Then you go on to look at the referee’s performance. It was very inconsistent, very cloudy in his decision making, booking our players who had to ride tackles that were flying in and they (the Bolton players) didn’t get spoken to.

“Then we have got the penalty decision.

“We’ve looked at it, Craig Davies was going away from the ball.

“Why Craig Davies has gone down? He was trying to win a penalty to win a football match for his team – that happens in football.

“But the referee has got to decide, was it a penalty or not, was there contact? Quite clearly from the angle that we have got, and the referee shared, Rob Lainton has pulled out.

“But he didn’t wait to even speak to his assistants or speak to anyone on his mic to get a second opinion.”

Flitcroft also highlighted the inexperience of fourth official Peter Bankes, who had only officiated at one professional match before last night’s game.

And he added: “I can’t understand, with all of the money in the game, and players this week signing £300,000 a month contracts, that we don’t have professional referees.

“It is a professional game. The potential loss of earnings for this football club should be taken into account, but it won’t be.”