Allardyce accuses players of throwing away victory

Middlesbrough 1 Bolton 1

Wanderers were leading through Henrik Pedersen's scrambled goal but keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen was then sent off for bringing down Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. George Boateng struck in injury time to deny the 10-man visitors victory.

Allardyce laid the blame on Rahdi Jaidi, the Tunisia central defender, for being out of position when Hasselbaink was brought down.

"We have thrown it away and only have ourselves to blame for throwing two precious points away. Unfortunately, Rahdi had a rush of blood which was unfortunate as the back two had put in such a solid, magnificent performance dealing with everything Boro threw at them.

"He decided to rush up for no reason at all, there was a long punt out from the goalie and all he had to do really was drop off and deal with it as he had been doing all day. That ultimately resulted in Hasselbaink getting through, Jussi catching him and bringing him down and he's got to go off.

"That ultimately cost us two points today because if we had stayed with 11 on the park we would probably have seen this game out. When you get down to 10 men and a new goalkeeper it makes life more difficult."

Allardyce also came to the defence of El-Hadji Diouf, who was booed loudly for wasting time throughout the match, especially by taking his time at corners.

"He didn't break any rules," said Allardyce. "It doesn't say in the rule-book you have to run to take a corner? If it is, then we will have him running. If Middlesbrough were leading how slow would Ray Parlour take the corner, would he be running or walking? We all know the answer."

Bolton were fortunate that referee Peter Walton decided that Jaaskelainen had fouled Hasselbaink just outside the box. Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren had no doubts a spot-kick should have been awarded. McClaren said: "I have seen it two or three times and to me it was on the line and just inside the box - a blatant penalty."

The Boro boss was full of praise for his players after a tough week which saw them earn victories over Charlton and Lazio.

"We always knew it was going to be a tough game, not just because it was Bolton but because it was our third game in a week, we couldn't change the team around much, and we knew it was going to be hard work for us.

"It would have been a travesty if we had lost it; we had enough chances to win the game. The players once again have shown fantastic character and they never give up, and they deserved the equaliser.

"If we had lost the mood would have been one of devastation, but it's quite high because we set out to achieve a minimum of four points in the weeks when we are in Europe and we have done that, but we feel a little rough it wasn't six."

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, McMahon (Morrison 81), Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parlour, Boateng, Zenden, Downing, Hasselbaink, Job (Viduka 45).

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Hunt (Ben Haim 54), N'Gotty, Hierro, Gardner, Giannakopoulos (Pedersen 62), Speed, Nolan, Diouf (Poole 88), Davies, Jaidi.

Attendance: 29,656

Referee: P Walton (Northamptonshire).