IAN Evatt insisted he did not need to chastise captain Ricardo Santos for the error which led to his red card in the 2-1 defeat against Bristol Rovers.

The Wanderers boss has backed his skipper to respond positively after his dismissal in the first half for a professional foul on Aaron Collins.

Santos became only the second Bolton player in history to be sent off four times for the club, equalling the record set by goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

And the incident, which happened with Wanderers a goal down, proved damaging as the visitors went on to double their lead and hold out for their first victory against Bolton since 1989.

Evatt believes Santos fully understood the gravitas of his mistake.

“He knows, I don’t need to speak to Rico,” the manager said. “I don’t need to say anything, he understands his level and his standards, and he dipped below them today. He is a brilliant player for us, and we will back him to come back.

“Will (Forrester) came on and did great. Second half we completely dominated, it looked like they were playing with 10 men. Great credit to the players but we have to start the game that way, with that energy, intensity and desire, that is when we are at our best. It just wasn’t there, the zest wasn’t there, and we have to get that back.”

Evatt said some of his players were nursing a “hangover” from defeat at Portsmouth earlier in the week, which contributed to their poor start to the game.

Though he had no argument against referee Carl Brook’s decision to send off Santos, he did take issue with the comparative lack of time added on at the end of the game.

But ultimately the Bolton boss knew his own side had not been up to scratch.

“It is a clear message to everyone, as I have said before, that when you dip below your standard you are going to get hurt, and we did in that first half,” he said.

“We conceded two really, really poor goals from individual mistakes which we haven’t been making. Then there was the sending off, which we have zero complaints about.

“I do have some complaints about some of the other fouls and decisions, definitely about only five minutes of added time – that is a million miles away from where we were at the start of the season.

“With that many substitutions, and the fact they were delaying and disrupting the game loads in the second half, for there only to be five minutes really is a long way from that.

“Today was self-inflicted and we have to be better.”