Steve Evans' explosive rant over 'scandalous' Leicester City loanee decision after Hartlepool United stalemate

Evans’ side had to settle for a 1-1 draw at the Suit Direct Stadium as Hartlepool wrestled their way back into the game thanks to Nicky Featherstone's second half strike as Stevenage’s automatic promotion charge stuttered.

Stevenage had taken the lead through Danny Rose’s header but it was an incident five minutes before the break which incensed the away side and left Evans irate.

Alex Gilbey met a ball over the top of the Hartlepool defence to race clear on goal and was confronted by Leicester City loan stopper Stolarczyk who had come charging out of his area as the last line of defence.

Gilbey attempted to lift the ball over Stolarczyk only for the Polish goalkeeper to block the effort with what Stevenage players and officials deemed was with an arm.

Stolarczyk, therefore, could have been shown a red card to leave John Askey’s side down to 10 men and a goal down.

Instead, Howard waved away the vociferous protests as the game continued.

“How there’s not been a red card in that first half is beyond belief,” said Evans.

“I’ll go and ask him, we’ll not get a headline on Sky Sports or BBC saying the PGMOL will apologise, but they’ll apologise in an email when they see it. It’s a scandalous decision.”

Evans continued: “If the referee does his job we’re playing against ten men.

“Ten men can sometimes rise to beat a team of 11, but I'm just sick to the back teeth now of decisions that are stinking. They’re atrocious in League Two.

“Gilbs tried to lift it, the goalkeeper comes up but he star-shapes off the floor to make himself big. It hits the arm and it's a foul and a free kick and a red card.

“I’ve no complaints with the referee in other general parts of his performance, but you can’t get a decision of that magnitude wrong.”

Despite Evans' anger at the decision, the Stevenage boss felt his team had done enough to take all three points from the Suit Direct Stadium but was left frustrated when admitting his side gave Hartlepool belief at the start of the second half.

“We were outstanding in the first half. A team who have become a real hardworking, decent side, they’ve been totally outplayed first half. They’re not at the races. They’re making changes to try and combat us,” said Evans.

“My concern going into half-time is we’ve not got more than one goal.

“Then we talk about being resolute but you can talk all you like in this game, when you make four errors to concede a goal, and that’s what we did inside 40 seconds, and it just gives Hartlepool a belief from being dead.

“The second half is end-to-end. They could have scored, we could have scored. They’ll look at the couple of chances they missed but, to be fair to us, at that stage we’ve gone four up front trying to win the game.

"How we don’t score in the last few minutes of the game with Luther and with Daryl is beyond me. It was easier to score.”

Get the latest Hartlepool United headlines with our free football newsletter! Follow the action from the Suit Direct Stadium and beyond as we bring the sport news to you. Visit our website here to sign up!