STEVE McClaren had no doubts - Middlesbrough should have had a penalty for the foul which saw Wanderers keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen sent off.

While Sam Allardyce argued that television pictures proved Jaaskelainen's professional foul on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was outside the penalty area, McClaren took the opposite view.

The Boro boss felt that Jaaskelainen's trailing leg was inside the penalty area when it caught Hasselbaink in the closing minutes of yesterday's 1-1 Premiership draw.

"I've seen it two or three times, and to me it was just inside the box, so to me it was a blatant penalty," McClaren said.

But while Middlesbrough's fans may have expected more from yesterday's match in the wake of Thursday night's 2-0 UEFA Cup victory over Lazio, McClaren was relieved to have taken a point.

"We always knew it was going to be a tough game," he said. "That's not just because of Bolton, but also because it was our third game in a week.

"We couldn't change the team around too much, so it was going to be hard work for us.

"But it would have been a travesty if we had lost. I think we deserved to win the game. We had enough chances, and I didn't think it was going to be our day. But the players once again showed fantastic character; they deserved the equaliser."

Given that McClaren could not make many changes to his team - with six players out injured - it was a surprise that he started with left-sided Stuart Downing on the right of midfield, and with Mark Viduka on the bench.

Boro looked more dangerous when Downing switched to the left midway through the first half, and when Viduka came on at half-time.

"We felt that early stages of the game would be important, and that the physical encounters would be important," McClaren said.

"We needed George Boateng and Ray Parlour in the middle for the first 20 minutes. Once we had built that platform, we changed things around, got into a rhythm and kept it going.

"We also felt that Mark Viduka would be better coming on in the second half than starting, and so it proved."

McClaren refused to join some of Middlesbrough's supporters - not to mention Newcastle boss Graeme Souness - in criticising Wanderers' hard-to-beat style of play.

While Boro's fans were incensed at what they saw as repeated time-wasting during the game - singling out El-Hadji Diouf as the main offender - McClaren preferred to concentrate on the way his team responded.

"Bolton are very effective at what they do," he said. "We know their set-pieces are always dangerous, and I thought we defended magnificently.

"We stood up, defended and competed - but you can't always do that successfully, and they managed to get the break."

As for the allegations of time-wasting, McClaren focused on the officials rather than Wanderers.

He said: "You leave that in the referee's hands, and the officials' hands. I was a bit disappointed, as I thought the referee could have been a bit stronger. HAPPYBut we can only control what we do, and I felt we did enough to win the game - even though we weren't at our sharpest."

McClaren highlighted the problems of balancing his side's Premiership challenge with their UEFA Cup campaign, but argued that they were getting better at coping with the demands.

It was their third match in eight days, following last Sunday's 2-1 win at Charlton and Thursday's clash with Lazio.

He said: "I was proud of the players, for the way they set about this week, the way we have ended it, and they way we are learning to stay in control from our European campaign.

"Teams are coming here, and trying to stifle and upset us, but we are responding very well.

"But when you look at what has happened to Arsenal and Liverpool this weekend after they came back from Europe, you can see that it is very difficult to play three games in a week."