Comment: By Gordon Sharrock IN 21 years of following the Wanderers for this newspaper, I have heard countless managers and players rant and rage over bad refereeing. I have winced at accusations of bias, sympathising with the men whose emotions were fired because their livelihoods were affected, but, in the cold light of day, simply put it down to incompetence.

The man in black is human and is allowed to have his off day. Don't we all?

But last night at Portman Road, I was left wondering whether Sam Allardyce actually has a point. Does Mr Barry Knight of Orpington have a grudge against him and against Bolton Wanderers?

We know statistics can be made to prove most points but three penalties in one match? Twelve yellow cards? Two sendings off? And Ipswich didn't warrant so much as a slap on the wrist!

It makes you wonder, especially since it was the same Mr Knight who sent off Paul Warhurst at Norwich in October (not, as Big Sam erroneously suggested in the heat of the moment, the two players who were ordered off at Crystal palace in March when Wanderers last finished a game with nine men). Being as kind as possible to the man in the middle, I have to say that he lost it! Some of his decisions were correct, others were staggeringly wrong. Even that wily old campaigner Tony Mowbray, the Ipswich player/coach, described his handling of the game as 'bizarre'.

Satisfaction

And the fact that it came in one of the most important games in the recent history of Bolton Wanderers -- a game on which the club's future welfare depended -- makes it all the more galling.

Allardyce says he would welcome a chance to put his complaints to the Football Association. I'm afraid they will not listen. He will be hit with a heavy fine and another censure, but at least he will have the satisfaction of getting it off his chest.

And maybe next time they consider giving Mr Knight a Bolton game they will think again.