PAUL Lambert has condemned the “chaos” which had cast his side’s 500-mile round trip to Wanderers into doubt until the day of the game.

The Ipswich boss was highly critical of the fact Saturday’s Championship clash had twice been under threat – firstly after Bolton Council revoked a safety certificate because of a potential stewarding strike and secondly when a system crash on Friday left ticketing and CCTV out of commission.

Financial problems have stacked up to such an extent under Ken Anderson that some of the staff who worked through the night to get the game played did so without pay.

Lambert was furious that a fixture at the second level of English football could be jeopardised in such a fashion.

“I thought that was a disgrace,” he said, after Ipswich ran out 2-1 victores. “We set off at quarter past 12 (yesterday) and travelled six hours. Just as we get here we get the shout that it could be off.

“The Bolton fans must be going mad with it. And I bet some of our fans came up last night. They’ve made a journey all that way to be told it could be in doubt. It’s wrong.

“I got a text at half six this morning to say it was on. If the game was off I’d lined up for us to go to Manchester City and train on their academy pitches. That was really kind of Manchester City and I thank them.

“It just threw everything into chaos.

“It’s terrible. That shouldn’t happen at this level. I feel sorry for the people here – the supporters, the players, the staff – because they don’t know what’s going on.

“Something’s not quite right for that to happen at this level.”

Lambert praised his side after claiming only their fourth win of the campaign – and one which raises serious questions over Wanderers’ chances of avoiding relegation to League One.

“I thought we were brilliant,” said the Scot to the EADT. “First half I thought we were excellent. The movement was brilliant and Bolton had to change their shape to cope with it.

“There was one, two-touch football and we controlled the game. The goals were fitting for that first half performance.

“Yeah, I’m disappointed with the last minute, but the performance was very, very good.”