LIAM Manning was left fuming by the performance of the referee as he watched his Oxford United side suffer their first defeat during his time in charge.

Dion Charles scored the only goal of the game after seven minutes, to give visiting side Bolton Wanderers all three points, however a foul by goalkeeper James Trafford was the biggest talking point in the game.

The Manchester City loanee charged out of his goal and clattered into Kyle Joseph outside the penalty box, with MJ Williams the sole defender running back to cover.

Referee Seb Stockbridge quickly brandished a yellow card, rather than the red which the home crowd called for.

U’s head coach Manning was left unimpressed by what he saw from the referee.

“I have to be careful what I say – the performance from the referee was atrocious,” he said.

“He just got too many wrong today and when you look at it, clubs will suffer and jobs will suffer.

“There’s so much on the line – you can’t referee a game like that, it’s terrible.”

Manning added: “I thought he had a huge level of arrogance about him.

“I thought he was terrible in terms of how we conducted himself.

“As bad as the decision was, it woke us up.

“That first 25 to 30 minutes, you can’t start games like that.

“We have to take the game to the opposition, especially here.”

United’s boss admitted harsh words were said in the dressing room after a poor opening 45 minutes.

“I wasn’t happy at half-time at all,” said Manning.

“I said to the players we can keep talking about it, and keep shouting, ranting and raving but ultimately when the game starts, people have got to step up and be counted.

“We’re in a scrap, we’re in a fight – who’s going to come to the party?

“We didn’t do that well in the first half.”