Cheltenham boss Darrell Clarke was “bewildered” by the decision to chalk off George Lloyd’s goal against Wanderers.

Victor Adeboyejo had opened the scoring midway through the first half with a clinical strike to pick out the bottom corner.

Lloyd thought he had got the Robins back on level terms after the break when he beat Nathan Baxter at the second attempt from Liam Sercombe’s set-piece, but the offside flag came to the Whites’ rescue.

“It was a good performance, we had chances and opportunities,” said Clarke. “I need to go and ask the ref and the linesman why they have disallowed the goal.

“It is not offside and I am still bewildered by it, to be honest. It is not the first time, he killed me on a decision last year when I was Port Vale manager at Accrington where we score a goal and he decides to give a penalty. I don’t know.

“It is these things, when you are coming to a top team like Bolton, you need the rub of the green to start off with and for me, my boys certainly deserved a bit of that tonight, but it wasn’t to be.”

Cheltenham had some good moments in the final third but failed to take their chances, with Baxter making an impressive stop to deny Rob Street from close range.

Clarke added: “I think the stats will all show in our favour and to come against a team I think is going to be in the top two come the end of the season, to put on that performance, we should get more but we didn’t.

“We have to regroup, go away, analyse the good and the bad, and try to get three points at Derby.”

The result sees Wanderers climb to third in the League One table after Derby were beaten by Reading. Cheltenham remain 22nd as they battle to avoid the drop.