Ian Evatt believes Wanderers would have gone on to beat Cambridge United had they kept 10 men on the pitch.

The Bolton boss felt his team were in the driving seat in the closing stages, up until Kyle Dempsey was sent off for a second bookable offence.

Referee Darren Drysdale issued EIGHT yellow cards to the Whites, including two to Dempsey and one to Evatt himself.

Chances fell to Dempsey, Dion Charles and Gethin Jones but, in the end, it was James Trafford who preserved a point with a brilliant late save to deny Harvey Knibbs a winner with the last kick.

“We were aggressive, we were intense, you have to defend your box really well here and we did that. Second half we were in the ascendancy and it looked like a goal was going to come,” Evatt said after the final whistle.

“Somehow from a four-on-two overload we make a wrong decision and then Gethin (Jones) misses a really simple chance from a corner.

“It was all us but then when Dempsey is off the pitch it changes things. I felt it was a solid enough performance.

“Chances won’t always fall to centre-forwards and we have to take them. Geth knows, he is entitled to miss opportunities but I still thought we were creating some promising situations. I thought we were going to go and win the game until the red card.

“I think it looked a bit more like us today.”

Trafford went down injured in the first half after being fouled by Paul Digby – the Bolton keeper also claiming it could have earned the Cambridge man a second yellow card.

With no replacement on the bench, there were a few nervous looks among away fans, but the Manchester City loanee got himself going again to make a couple of important stops, even without his late heroics.

“He got a dead leg but he is OK,” Evatt said. “We did everything I asked of them. It is still not where we were in October but I think it is a step in the right direction.

“It is a good point away from home and a difficult place to come.

“I just felt some of their players really played the game today. Physical centre forwards, it is always a two-way street, I know, I was a centre-half and I thought Ironside was very clever with the way he manipulated things.”

On the performance of the officials, Evatt felt he had to bite his tongue.

“I don’t want to speak about referees because I’ll get myself in trouble,” he said.

When asked about the number of yellow cards in the game, he added: “It is a massive issue. It is crazy. There is no way our players deserved that many yellow cards.”