‘Need to get a grip’ - Angry Steve Evans makes his feelings clear following Stevenage injustice against Blackpool

Stevenage boss Steve Evans let loose on the match officials at Bloomfield Road after Blackpool’s opponents were denied a crucial equaliser just before half-time today.

Striker Jamie Reid believed he had cancelled out Jordan Rhodes’ 38th-minute opener from a set-piece, only for referee Paul Howard to stroke it off after his assistant deemed an offside had ocurred.

According to Evans, the decision proved crucial as it denied them the momentum and allowed Blackpool to score two further goals after the interval through Owen Dale (60mins) and CJ Hamilton (78).

To compound matters, the Boro boss claimed Neil Critchley admitted his side ‘got away with that’ after reviewing footage of the incident.

Evans anticipates an apologetic email landing in his inbox in the coming days. But he claims that won’t wash with him as he rounded on the quality of officiating in the country.

He said: ‘For me there’s a pivotal moment, it’s game changing.

‘It’s a well-worked set-piece, Carl Piergianni knocks it down to Jamie Reid and he is brave. He goes in and scores.

‘And there’s probably five or six seconds before the flag goes up.

‘Obviously, you don’t know if it is offside from our seats but I’ve come out for the second half and Neil Critchley said to me “we’ve just looked at it and he is clearly onside, we’ve got away with that”.

‘We’ll get another e-mail and I’m sick of emails from them.

‘The Football League need to get a grip at how bad officials are because that was horrendous from the assistant referee.

‘The referee has to go by what the assistant referee says but he has a good enough position to see it’s a clear goal and that’s game-changing.

‘I asked the question at half-time (why the flag had taken so long to go up) and he said “I’m not going to discuss it, go away”.

‘That’s just so they can go and get their excuses and stories right inside their dressing room but they can have no excuses.’