IAN Evatt felt last night’s Carabao Cup game against Aston Villa was turned on its head by a debatable penalty.

Danny Ings was adjudged to have been fouled by Bolton keeper Joel Dixon – with replays showing that the Villa striker may have been marginally offside in the build-up.

There was also an argument within the Wanderers camp that Ings had pushed the ball too far before making contact with Dixon and winning the spot kick.

“I think the ball was going out of play,” said a pragmatic Evatt after the final whistle. “But I also genuinely think he was offside.

“Will Aimson is leaning, which makes it a tighter call, but his (Ings) foot looks to me like it is in the next grass cut. You would like to see those decisions be correct, as tight as it is.

“That penalty gave them some belief and confidence back. I think the longer the game went on at 1-1, the more nervy they would have become.”

Evatt had seen his side take a first-half lead through Dion Charles, a goal created by the hard work of Dapo Afolayan and Kieran Lee.

"That really just defines what we are and who we are - high press, win the ball high up the pitch and then show good composure and quality to punish them and I thought we deserved to be in front, to be honest,” he said.

"We had them kind of looking nervous because we were ahead and then the set plays give them some belief and confidence. It was a hell of a ball in, there was some disruption on the goalkeeper before that, but it's the second one that's most disappointing really because the game's tight, one all, 60 minutes.

"We're just about to start thinking about changing and giving us some fresh impetus and energy and he looks offside to me - whether he is or not, I don't know. It just goes back to that VAR discussion in all football.

"After that, I thought they got some confidence and we lacked a bit the last 20 minutes but loads of good things tonight and we'll progress onto Saturday now and focus on the league."

Wanderers head to Plymouth this weekend and, asked if fatigue could be a problem after such an effort against Villa, Evatt said he would once again be keeping the team fresh with some squad rotation.

Villa had pulled out all the stops, with manager Steven Gerrard saying he had named his strongest possible line-up in respect of the travelling supporters.

“They should take an immense amount of credit from giving Villa a run for their money for so long in the game,” Evatt said of his side. “That was their full team with probably one or two changes, but all their big hitters were there for all to see and I thought we coped with them really well for 60 minutes. The game really changes on moments and their quality really punished in the good moments for them and we didn't quite defend them well enough, but against Premier League opposition that happens."