MARK Halsey impressed many people when he showed great character and honesty when he was brave enough to change his mind then explain himself to a worldwide TV audience.

But, if the Bolton-based ref thought he'd be applauded for his performance in the Fulham-Arsenal game, when he turned up for his regular workouts with Wanderers this week, he had a rude awakening.

Sam Allardyce told him straight: "You were wrong!"

The Bolton boss believes Halsey has opened up a can of worms by saying the reaction of players helped influence his change of heart after he initially awarded Fulham a penalty when Andy Cole went down under a challenge from Ashley Cole.

"He's been persuaded by the players and that's dangerous," Allardyce said.

"If he was influenced by the body language of the players for the penalty what about the body language when he disallowed Collins John's goal (the Fulham striker was penalised for a push on Kolo Toure). You could see from the reaction of the Arsenal players that only Mark Halsey in the entire ground thought there was something wrong with that goal."

Allardyce believes referees need training if they are going to stand in the media spotlight on a regular basis.

"Sometimes their honesty can go against them," he said. "If referees are going to be ridiculed by the media, I think they'll be reluctant to speak publicly.

"I think Mark Halsey has possibly learned his lesson and won't be in such a hurry to go in front of the cameras next time."

Nevertheless, Allardyce said Halsey's decision to take time out to consult his linesman before overturning his penalty verdict added weight to his own long-running campaign for video camaras and instant-replay technology to help referees get the big decisions correct.

"I have instant replay on my own monitor and that's only with our limited technology," he said. "People make the excuse that it would have to be implemented in the whole of football and that would be too expensive but that's rubbish.

"If we (the Premiership) can afford it, which we can, we should be the pioneers. Whatever those other people say, their jobs don't rely on it; my job does and my players' careers do. My staff's livelihoods rely on referees getting it right.

"A referee could send this club down with one decision and could make 50-60 per cent of the employees on the football side here redundant overnight.

"If I had been Chris Coleman (Fulham manager) waking up on Sunday morning, I'd have been absolutely gutted."