WANDERERS have decided against taking their complaint about Tuesday night’s referee James Linington any further.

Ian Evatt had been unhappy with the Isle of Wight based official and his communication during the 1-0 defeat to Accrington Stanley, branding him “arrogant” after declining to explain the lack of added time at the end of both halves.

Linington has been a Football League referee since 2008 and has largely been active in the Championship this season.

Asked on Thursday if he had taken the matter to referee’s body the PGMOL, Evatt told The Bolton News: “We haven’t bothered because we’ll probably get the same answers we always get,” he said. “I just don’t think there is any ownership from officials or the governing bodies. We’re at the stage now where we are giving up on it.”

The Bolton boss remains disappointed with the lack of progress being made by officials and the game’s rule-makers on ‘timewasting’ – even though he understood Accrington’s reasons for slowing down the game.

Evatt feels it is the responsibility of the referee to keep the game moving at a reasonable pace, or to add on the requisite time at the end, something he felt did not happen on Tuesday night.

“I’d really like someone to explain to me why there was only two minutes at half time and four minutes after the game on Tuesday night. I’d like to know the thinking behind that but they wouldn’t answer our questions,” he explained.

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“All we got was: ‘Oh, did you think you were going to score?’ And probably not is the answer because I don’t think we would have scored if we were still playing now.

“I think what is at stake here for both clubs we want a level of consistency across the board and I don’t think we are getting that at all.”


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