TOP referee Mike Riley broke the hearts of Bolton boss Sam Allardyce, his players and 30,000 Wanderers supporters at the Carling Cup final in Cardiff.
The Yorkshire official made a hat-trick of controversial decisions to deny Bolton their place in the UEFA Cup and cost the club a place in Europe and millions of pounds in badly needed revenue.
But when asked to comment on the three match turning moments Mr Riley told MEN Sport: "I can't, I'm going to meet my wife."
Allardyce believes Riley made the wrong call when awarding Middlesbrough a sixth minute penalty for Emerson Thome's tackle on Joseph-Desire Job. He compounded the error by failing to spot Bolo Zenden illegally taking two touches on the spot kick that beat Jussi Jaaskelainen.
And with Wanderers battling for a late equaliser to send the final into extra time, Mr Riley missed Ugo Ehiogu's handball when substitute Stelios shot goalwards.
However, it's not the first time Bolton have been on the wrong end of Mr Riley's decisions.
He sent-off Paul Warhurst and Dean Holdsworth in a stormy game with Leicester City in 2001, dismissed Jaaskelainen at Newcastle in the same season after awarding the Magpies a dubious opening goal and then red carded Bruno N'Gotty against West Brom last term. Not surprisingly Allardyce said: "Mr Riley lived up to his reputation as far as we are concerned.
Past problems
"We've always had problems with him in the past and history hasn't been kind."
Allardyce may now approach the soccer authorities and demand Mr Riley doesn't take control of any future Bolton matches.
"If Emmo's foul on Job was a clear cut penalty, so was the one at the end," fumed Big Sam.
"Once again Mr Riley's inconsistency has let us down. Zenden played the ball firstly with his right foot then with his left. Under the rules of the game that's an indirect free kick to us.
"I'm not sure he would have given anything even if he had seen it. But if I saw it from the directors' box and Phil Brown saw it from the dug out, why didn't he?"
But despite his frustration at Mr Riley's abject display Allardyce conceded: "Middlesbrough probably deserved to win because they played a lot better than us. We made a terrible start and we couldn't overcome it.
"However, the turning point for us were the three chances Youri had to score when it was 2-1."
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sour sour grapes THATS ALL WHAT IT IS! You were beaten by a better side on the day and furthermore if you supported City you would have something to moan about regarding Mike Riley because he gives attrocious decisions against us whenever he officiates our matches,however Kevin Keegan does'nt whinge on about it like Allardyce,he simply gets on with it,I appriciate it is hard to accept but we at City have a stronger case to moan about this sad referee,in the meantime can I say WELL DONE TO BORO!!!!!