IAN Evatt applauded referee Carl Boyeson and his assistants for cracking down on the ‘dark arts’ of League Two football at Morecambe.

Wanderers recorded an important 1-0 win at the Mazuma Stadium but were frustrated by the Shrimps’ attempts to slow down the game in the first half.

Long-serving Morecambe kit man Les Dewhirst got himself in trouble with the officials after he was spotted removing the spare balls from the periphery of the pitch, causing a short delay.

“It’s all fun and games isn’t it,” Evatt grinned after the final whistle. “You try not to embroil yourself into that kind of thing.

“You just have to maintain your focus and this game means so much for us and the three points meant so much to us, so it’s hard not to get emotional with things like that, it’s hard to control yourself and sometimes we don’t.

“But we have to learn and trust in the referee, trust in the officials to see that and spot it and make sure they stamp it out and they did that.”

Home boss Derek Adams was also handed a yellow card for ‘kicking out’ at Dapo Afolayan as he tried to collect the ball near the technical area.

“He tried to grab Dapo and then he had a little kick out at him and it’s just nonsense really,” Evatt added.

Wanderers kept their head in the chaos and should have extended their lead significantly in the second half.

Evatt had to substitute Dapo Afolayan at half time after the West Ham youngster was also booked during the row with Adams.

“We had to sacrifice Dapo because the manager trying to fight him, which is ridiculous, and it got him booked. I’m not sure why Dapo got booked for it and then you can see people targeting him and the referee trying to even it up.

“He was upset. He was really upset and initially, no, because he’s a young player and he wanted to help the team and down to 10 Dapo would be a big player for us the way he carries the ball. But now he’s had time to think about it, he’s understood the reason why.

“To be fair to the players, they were brilliant, they all rallied around him and said it’s for the team and he’s done that for the team.”