Stevenage boss Steve Evans was adamant that Bristol Rovers’ late equaliser should not have stood, saying there had been a handball in the build-up and that goalscorer Chris Martin had also been offside before firing home a brilliant leveller.
Evans believed his side were the better team in the 1-1 draw at the Memorial Stadium, as the Hertfordshire outfit chalked up a first draw on the road in the league this season.
Martin scored a sublime long-range chip from 35 yards out after 83 minutes to cancel out Jamie Reid’s 40th-minute opener.
Evans said: “They [the Bristol Rovers fans] turn up in great numbers and they back their team. They’re honest people here and they’ll know when they go home tonight and watch it back, they’ll know what happened: they’ll know that it’s an offside by five or seven yards, that it’s a handball and they’ll take a point.
“When my team gets outplayed I know that I’ll take a point.
“They tell me not to say it [criticising the referee]. You don’t shut a boy up who tells the truth.
“People will talk about the chances that Kane Hemmings missed or the two chances that Carl Piergianni normally scores. They’ll talk about aspects of football, but the referees are not good enough, and as long as I see it I’ll say it.
“I watched my players get yellows for kicking the ball away in the first half deservedly, I watched their goalkeeper kick it away when we got a corner…”
Evans received one of a host of yellow cards handed out by referee Matthew Donohue in the game but the veteran manager shrugged it off, saying: “That doesn’t bother me. He’ll tell his grand kids. I’ll tell my grand kids that we should have won the game and I’ll show my wee grandson at two-and-a-half the decision and he will say that’s nonsense.”
Rovers manager Joey Barton also had criticism for referee Donohue, as the Pirates’ three-match winning run at home ended.
“Look, it’s a foul,” said Barton, of the challenge on his goalkeeper Matthew Cox in the run-up to Reid scoring.
“We were unfortunate not to win the game. We were pushing, pushing, pushing…If you can’t win them then don’t lose them.
“We felt aggrieved – we felt we should have had a penalty before Chris’ goal. The ball skips up and hits [Luther James-Wildin] on the arm. I just don’t know the decision-making. Some of these decisions are Keystone Cops.
“In the midst of this Evans is going bananas at the referee, which is normal at the end of the game. If they’d have won the game they’d have been very fortunate because they weren’t better than us.
“First half we were a bit nervy. They’re not an easy team to play against. I have to be pleased with the effort,” added Barton.
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