NOONE DISMISSAL PAINS PARKINSON
PHIL PARKINSON admits Bolton’s chances of staying in the Championship look bleak after his team were reduced to nine men and then conceding two late goals against Swansea City.
He disputed the booking of Craig Noone, who earned two yellow cards in the space of nine first-half minutes. But agreed with the sending off of David Wheater, who tripped Wayne Routledge to prevent a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Oli McBurnie finally broke Bolton’s the resistance when he found the bottom corner for his 18th goal of the season, before Bersant Celina scored a second in stoppage time.
“We do feel sorry for ourselves at the moment, but we have to get that out of our system,” said Parkinson.
“The first sending off is a bad decision by the referee. Craig has gone into a challenge to block the ball and I’m not sure how you can tackle any fairer than that. It’s never a yellow card in a million years.
“The second one is a straight red card, even though David is a long way from goal he is the last man.”
Swansea moved to within seven points of the playoffs, and manager Graham Potter was pleased with their patient approach.
“The hardest thing to do is play against a team with a defensive mindset, and you have to find the answers all the time” he said.
Swansea were dominant early with chances for Daniel James and McBurnie. And it looked as if they were going to be rewarded when Nathan Dyer was hauled down in the box by Noone after a clever one-two with Kyle Naughton. But Remi Matthews dived down to his right to save McBurnie’s penalty.
Bolton midfielder Callum Connolly forced a reaction save from Kristoffer Nordfeldt as Bolton looked to build on their reprieve, but Noone handed the initiative back to Swansea two minutes before half-time. The former Cardiff winger had been booked for the mistimed challenge that resulted in the penalty, and he let his emotions spill over less than 10 minutes later when he crashed into McBurnie with a forceful late tackle.
He was shown his second yellow card and given his marching orders by referee Gavin Ward.
Bolton held-firm after halftime, but were the masters of their own downfall when Wheater saw red after 72 minutes.
Pawel Olkowski’s loose ball was pounced on by Routledge, who knocked it into space in the Bolton half. The winger would have had a clear run at goal, but the Bolton skipper tripped him.
Parkinson’s men set out to contain their opponents for the final 10 minutes, but finally cracked when substitute Courtney Baker-Richardson headed a loose ball into the path of McBurnie, who calmly found the bottom corner.
And Celina made sure the Swans got back to winning ways two minutes into stoppage time when he calmly placed the ball into the top corner after being picked out by James.