James Trafford's verdict on Ricardo Santos' Bolton Wanderers red card & Port Vale draw

James Trafford believes Bolton Wanderers skipper Ricardo Santos should not have been sent off in the draw against Port Vale but feels the Whites are really coming along away from home.

Wanderers could have taken the lead early on but Dapo Afolayan's effort was parried wide by Jack Stevens. But the Whites were reduced to 10 men when Ricardo Santos was shown a second yellow card.

Santos was shown his first following Nathan Smith going to ground from a corner. But controversy followed with his second booking by referee Ross Joyce which appeared to be harsh after Ellis Harrison appeared to go to ground easily.

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After the break, Aaron Morley called Stevens into action with a fantastic save. The Valiants were the more dominant side but Trafford came to their aid with a sublime stop from Harrison as Wanderers held out to claim a point.

The Manchester City loanee admitted Wanderers were pleased with the result, having been down to 10 men for around an hour, but that it could have been three points. In his view, Santos should not have been dismissed, but was pleased with how the team defended as a whole and their organisation.

He said: “To be fair we were quite pleased with the result because we have played pretty much 60 minutes with 10 men on a really hot day, on a really big pitch, like nobody has ever said.

“We battled well and we were upbeat. We thought we should have been ahead – the ball went in but we don’t know why they didn’t give a goal. It is a point but we should have got three.

“In my opinion it isn’t a sending off but I am not a ref, maybe they know more? The ref has a decision to make and we needed