By Mark Heys
November 6 2006

Bolton front man El-Hadji Diouf has revealed that referee Mark Clattenburg apologised for ruling out a perfectly legitimate Stelios Giannakopoulos goal against Wigan Athletic on Saturday Giannakopoulos rounded Latics keeper Chris Kirkland to score in the first half of the Wanderers 1-0 defeat against their near neighbours but both referee Clattenburg and his assistant Bob Pollock deemed that the Greek star was offside.

At half time Diouf questioned the referee's decision and was told that a mistake had been made but he refuses to blame the Durham-based official for his costly error.

"At half-time I asked the referee if he had seen the video and he said 'Yes, I'm sorry'.The goal would have made all the difference but sometimes you score goals with the hand and the referee leaves it. Referees cannot see everything." said Diouf to the official site

"This is football. We don't have to blame anybody

The defeat against Athletic was Bolton's second at home in quick succession as they had only a week earlier been on the wrong end of a Wayne Rooney hattrick as Manchester United recorded a 4-0 win.