Barnsley boss Michael Duff admitted there were a 'few words' between him and opposite number Ian Evatt at full-time of their 2-1 win over Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup but that is was 'something and nothing'.
The match was fewer than six minutes old when Bolton skipper Ricardo Santos inadvertantly put through his own goal from Nicky Cadden's dangerous cross to give the Tykes an early lead. Dion Charles appeared to have equalised not long after, but his header was chalked off for offside.
Barnsley doubled their advantage before half-time as Adam Phillips fired home a smart strike from the edge of the box. It gave James Trafford little chance.
READ MORE: Bolton Wanderers player ratings vs Barnsley - Jon Dadi Bodvarsson good in FA Cup exit
After the break, Charles again had the ball in the back of the net but it was once more ruled out for offside. But Jon Dadi Bodvarsson halved the deficit with 10 minutes to go with a powerful header which Barnsley's rearguard could not keep out on the line.
Despite continuing to press for an equaliser, it did not come for Bolton and the Whites exited the competition. Following the full-time whistle and seven minutes of added time, Evatt and opposite number Duff walked onto the pitch pointing at one another as they had to be separated by referee Carl Boyeson.
The Tykes boss had his say on the flashpoint but played it down as he admitted there was a verbal exchange. He paid compliments to Bolton for making the game a tough one for his side and how Wanderers' bench in particular forced them into action.
Duff said: “It is an emotional game. We want to win, they want to win.
“And the way the game built into a crescendo, we had a few words. I have known Ian a long time so it was something and nothing.
“He disagreed with a couple of things and I disagreed with a couple of things. We told each other, that was it.
“We were having a firm conversation but that’s all it was. We didn’t confront each other and we never got in anyone’s space.”
He added: “I thought we were good and disappointed we weren’t ahead by more at half-time. I think we’ve made the game difficult in the last 10 to 15 minutes by probably sitting in a bit too early, but I think we had really good chances on the counter attack against a good team.
“We’re always resilient, we’re always hard to beat, we know that, we’re difficult to break down but I thought we created loads of chances which was the most pleasing part of it.
“Credit to Bolton, they dug in and made it really difficult. We ended up going to a back six for the last five minutes of the game because all philosophies and anything like that which people work on, it goes out of the window when the kitchen sink is getting thrown at you and we managed to survive it.
“Today was good opposition, you look at the quality they’ve got coming off the bench, you’re going to have to make a few blocks, but I can’t really remember Jack making any saves of note, so we’ve managed to keep them at bay and at arm’s length well.
“It was a hard game. I’d imagine both teams were disappointed when the draw came out but we have a thing of just trying to win the next half of football. We tried to win the second half, we didn’t, but park it up, music goes on at half-time, win the next half, music goes on at full-time, win the next half - that’s the way we work.”
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