GLENN Roeder avoided becoming embroiled in a war of words with counterpart Sam Allardyce after the Bolton boss accused Newcastle United players of physically abusing El Hadji Diouf during yesterday's 2-1 defeat.

Despite Bolton's often heavy-handed approach, Allardyce believed his side were the victims of Newcastle's bully-boy tactics.

The United boss, however, insisted his side were not intent in kicking the Senegalese international out of the game, which saw Bolton complete a first ever Premiership double over the Magpies.

"No, not at all. That is interesting," replied Roeder on learning Allardyce's charge. "Not as far as I am concerned. I think it probably has been misinterpreted in the interpretation of French and English maybe."

It wasn't the only misunderstanding on an afternoon which saw the Magpies lose for only the third time in 13 games. Pavel Srnicek and Peter Ramage combined to hand Bolton a way back in to the match.

While Roeder was disappointed to concede a sloppy goal he would npt point the finger of blame.

"I am disappointed to be going home after the start we had," said the United chief after his 50th match in charge. "The goals we conceded by our standards of late were shockers. They were two woeful goals and Srnicek hardly had anything else to do of any consequence. After Kieron Dyer scored to conceding that goal in the first half and not go in 1-0 up after playing so well for the first half hour was a huge disappointment."

Bolton's winner was another poor goal to concede but the Magpies boss felt there was an infringement in the lead up to the strike.

He said: "I think Kevin Nolan pushed Ramage in the back but you can't expect referees to see everything. Unfortunately he has scored an own goal too and you have to live with these things.

"I don't blame anybody for the goal."

The fixture saw Roeder hand another teenager his first full team debut little under a month after handing Paul Huntingdon his chance.

David Edgar made his Premiership bow and his manager believes the right back acquitted himself admirably.

"Bolton aren't the best team to play against when you have an inexperienced back four, especially both full backs who were both 19-years-old. But they did their very best." said Roeder.

"It couldn't be a tougher place for a young player to make his debut, especially with Bolton's direct style of play. We knew it would be like that but it would be even more difficult than normal for a young defender. I have not got any complaints with the effort he put in and I'm sure I will sit down with him and go through the game on the video. Although he is disappointed to have lost he is delighted to make his debut for Newcastle."

Arguably the game changed in favour of the home side when Dyer was withdrawn ten minutes after the break.

Roeder revealed the scorer was not injured and was removed from the action to save him for the forthcoming fixtures.

"Kieron is fine. We are just getting him back to full match fitness," said Roeder. "He will be available for the next couple of games. This is someone who has been out of action for 18 months. You can't keep expecting him to bang out 90 minutes. It is asking too much.''