Freedman bemoans "semi-professional attitude"

In the space of five minutes, it all went completely upside down for Bolton Wanderers on Saturday. Sam Ricketts was sent off with the second of two debatable yellow cards, Charlton equalized with the free kick that resulted before going ahead from the penalty spot following Darren Pratley's foul in the box. The referee, Trevor Kettle, wasn't finished though as he would send Craig Davies off at the end of the match before carding Zat Knight in the tunnel after the final whistle.

When all was said and done, the referee had handed out ten yellow cards, nine of which came after the halftime break, with seven going to five different Bolton Wanderers men. Needless to say, Dougie Freedman was not a happy man. Speaking after the match, the manager made his feelings known:

"£100million is at stake - there are players in there who have got their futures and their careers at stake. It's not his fault, the £30,000 he gets to train has got to be looked at.

"I can't criticise referees because he's probably had a long 12-hour shift yesterday.

"The first yellow card for Sam is not right and the second yellow card for Craig is not right.

"I'll probably need to go to sleep before I give my true comment because it's a semi-professional attitude towards refereeing again.

"The guy is semi-professional, he's working every day. How can I expect for him for him to keep up with play or get the angle, because I don't think he saw Craig Davies. He wasn't in the correct position because he probably isn't fit enough because he doesn't train full time. I can never criticise referees because they are not full time.

"These guys run around at some speed, trust me, because I can't do it any more.

"I think we played with intensity, with speed of thought, but unfortunately the crowd cheers and the referee responds to the crowd and makes decisions that are inconsistent."