I was able to hear the reactions and reports of some of the local and national media as they watched yesterday's match and the majority described it as a "cracking" match, agreed that we thoroughly deserved our half-time lead, and were surprised that Bolton still had eleven men on the pitch.

Speaking to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Trevor Peer after the game, Roy McFarland was quite definite that the referee John Brandwood had "bottled" the decision to send off Mike Whitlow. The Bolton man hauled down Trevor Benjamin before the striker burst clear on goal, yanking off the 20-year-old's boot at the same time, but Brandwood gave the decision the other way.

McFarland stormed to the assembled press men, "The rules of the game mean that they should have been playing with ten men. I don't need to go and see the referee, I know what happened and Whitlow should have been sent off. Benjamin would have been clear on goal and whatever excuse the referee gives for me he has bottled it. I have full support for referees, they have a very difficult job, but maybe we need to give them some help. Maybe use a referee in each half or use television? Referees don't need more lambasting or more rules, I think they need help.

"The crux of the matter is they should have been down to ten men and we would have had a decent advantage. We could still have lost the game 3-1 but the rules mean they should have been down to ten men."

Hopefully McFarland will not be in trouble with the FA after putting into words what nearly everybody - Bolton fans included - thought about the incident.

The disappointment of the result was compounded by a win for Chesterfield which sent Cambridge United back to the bottom of Division Two, and the manager added, "I was pleased with the overall performance. We've had plenty of chances, hit the bar and had one cleared off the line. We may have gone bottom but I think we've shown enough to show people that we have a fighting chance. We are not despondent."

Peer put McFarland on the spot with a question about top scorer Martin Butler, who was waving and applauding to the fans as he was the last player to leave the pitch, asking if the rumours were true that a transfer deal had already been struck with another club. The manager was clearly unhappy with the question and would only confirm that while Butler was a Cambridge United player he would give 100% in the cause, adding that he needed stitches in his head after a challenge from a Bolton player.

Victorious Bolton manager Sam Allardyce naturally backed the referee and said, "'Benjamin definitely fouled him before the incident and if Mike Whitlow had been sent off you would have seen me sent off into the stands for protesting."

On his two goal hero Bob Taylor, who was restored to the first team after a spell in the reserves, Allardyce commented, "It was a superb goal from Bob and a great goal-line clearance at the other end and he was probably man of the match for us. He's 32 now but he's loving every minute of it because he knows he's getting close to hanging his boots up.

''Bob was a bit annoyed that I took him off because he wanted his hat-trick but at that stage we just needed to defend well and not concede another bad goal. It was a very difficult test for us, especially as we did not have the best of preparations after what happened on Wednesday night in the Worthington Cup. It was a huge test of character. We were tested to the hilt but in the end the quality of our finishing came through. It looks comfortable but we know it was nothing like that. Sometimes when you look at these cup games it makes you wonder why Cambridge are down there because they performed so well.''