Bolton Wanderers 3 Manchester City 3:MARK HUGHES tried to be discreet. "I don't appreciate it when a referee coming out for the second half makes comments about who he does or doesn't like in my team," said the Manchester City manager. "He might be having a laugh and a joke but . . . I have to be careful here as we are talking about integrity."
Craig Bellamy was allegedly one of those Mark Clattenburg named negatively. Eight minutes later he was booked for dissent over Bolton’s third goal. In 12 more he was sent off for simulation when Paul Robinson tripped him in full cry.
The referee may regret his indiscretion more than his wrong decision.
Clattenburg, 34 and flying high, has run into trouble before. Most referees have. In fine lines it is hard to please two managers. Hughes gave him credit for being “in a good position” but called the red card “laughable”.
Gary Megson thought it “a bit harsh”, adding: “I knew Craig at Norwich. He has not changed. He is still fiery as well as being a marvellous player.”
The story, though, should not have been the referee, mostly fine, nor sympathy for Bellamy. There was a surprise greater even than that. Bolton have seldom won marks for artistic impression.
Here they matched City’s plutocrats for skill and imagination, surpassed them for commitment, never lacking in a Megson team, and lost their third lead to City’s 10 men only through the tenacious brilliance of Carlos Tevez.
One win in eight home games has prompted a fair bit of muck but Megson was rightly spared on Saturday, when his spirit ran through his team and glowed in him afterwards.
“We’re trying to play more expansively, get the ball down and pass it, and twice we’ve cost ourselves,” he said. “I was watching the earlier game (Stoke v Wigan) and there must have been 14 players of 6ft 3 or 4in. We haven’t got that.”
Lee Chung-yong would have scored the first goal if Ivan Klasnic, clearly offside, had not helped the ball over the line, sparking an earlier grievance in Hughes. Kevin Davies, coming deep, started the move and was a pivotal front man for Bolton.
Gary Cahill’s deft turn and sweet curler were far too good for a centre-half and, like Klasnic’s second, followed a throw-in.
City’s trouble was that, barring Bellamy and Tevez, they did not engage top gear until they were behind or a man short.
Tevez deserved his two goals and Bellamy, fired by a marker, Gretar Steinsson, with more tattoos than himself, wonderfully made the second for Micah Richards. But Emmanuel Adebayor was disengaged, then substituted when he should have been winning the game against 10 men.
