Poor start and bad decisions cost Bolton - boss Owen Coyle

Bolton boss Owen Coyle believes a poor start to the season and a number of bad decisions from officials have cost his side their place in the Premier League.

Wanderers were relegated after drawing 2-2 at Stoke on Sunday and Coyle was unhappy with both of City's goals.

"We had a slow start to the season and we were playing catch up from then," said Coyle. "But some of the decisions have been incredible this season.

"We feel aggrieved at the way events transpired today."

Jonathan Walters gave Stoke the lead at the Britannia on Sunday when he bundled in from close range, but replays showed that the striker had knocked the ball out of Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan's hands.

Walters also scored home side's second goal - to equalise after Bolton had taken a 2-1 lead through goals from Mark and Kevin Davies - from the penalty spot after Peter Crouch had gone down very easily under a challenge from Bogdan.

"For the first goal, Adam Bogdan had the ball in both hands and Jonathan Walters has headed him on his elbow to release the ball. It is as clear a foul as you are going to see," claimed Coyle.

"The penalty is such a soft award. Adam did well to save the first effort but when Crouch is looking to go past, Adam is not even looking at him and Crouch has stumbled into him.

"I've been in to see the officials and [referee] Chris Foy felt he wasn't placed to see it and the linesman felt he couldn't be sure there was a foul. I don't know how clear it has to be?"

QPR's defeat at Manchester City on Sunday meant a win would have been enough to extend Bolton's 11-year stay in the Premier League.

Coyle, though, has vowed that the club will recover quickly and strive to return to the top flight at the first opportunity.

"It is horrible, there is no getting away from it," he admitted. "We're disappointed but we are a magnificent football club and in adversity is when you have to stand up and be counted. We have to bounce back and do it quickly and try and come back at the first attempt."

The Scot praised the Bolton fans, who were out in force at the Britannia on Sunday in hope that the Trotters would beat the drop.

"Once again the supporters were magnificent today. They came out and backed the team in huge numbers both home and away and I am really feeling for them at this point in time."

Coyle refused to speculate on the future of either himself or his players, 11 of whom are out of contract in the summer.

"We have to soak up what's happened," he added. "We believed all season we would have enough. Through everything we have had this season - all the injuries - we still had an opportunity to come out smiling.

"We maybe could have defended situations better but we'll regroup, we will pick ourselves up and we'll find out in the next couple of days everything we need to plan to go again."