Chief among Allardyce’s grievances was the decision of Olegario Benquerença, the Portugese referee, to turn a blind eye to Frédéric Dehu’s handball in the 39th minute when Bolton were attempting to cap their early superiority with a deserved lead.

The home team’s appeals were rejected, just as they were in the second half when Fabien Barthez, the Marseilles goalkeeper, appeared to manhandle Kevin Davies out of the way, leaving Allardyce dejected, despite his team having succeeded in their primary aim of denying the French side a crucial away goal.

“It was an absolute screamer,” Allardyce said of Dehu’s offence. “It was blatant, definite, a 120 per center. And from the referee’s position, there was no chance he could have been obscured by any player. I can’t understand why he didn’t give it. It appeared as though the referee didn’t want to give anything controversial, no matter who it was for, and sadly it went against us tonight.

“I’m told television showed four good penalty appeals. If so, I’m being kind because I thought there was only two. There is nothing we can do about it now. We will have to go to Marseilles, try and keep it tight and try to nick a goal.”

Marseilles will go into the return not only with a much clearer understanding of the threat posed by Allardyce’s team, but also of their weaknesses. The French side initially struggled with Bolton’s physical approach before exploiting their inability to retain possession for lengthy periods.

Marseilles will start favourites and Allardyce acknowledged that it will be a “very difficult” second leg. “We found ourselves under pressure in the first 15 minutes and again at the end,” Jean Fernandez, the Marseilles coach, said. “But we managed to match them in between. First and foremost we consider this a good result.”

While Allardyce justifiably considered himself hard done by, he will also reflect on the continuing excellence of Jussi Jaaskelainen, his goalkeeper.

The Finland player was outstanding in the draw away to Arsenal on Saturday in the Premiership and he continued in the same vein last night, sparing his team-mates’ blushes when they conceded possession with worrying regularity during a disjointed second-half performance. Bolton were certainly grateful to him when he darted from his six-yard box to save at the feet of Mamadou Niang after the forward had been allowed to advance on goal.

Bolton had started well, showing no signs of trepidation in the face of their more experienced European opponents. Employing a combination of the direct style that has unsettled so many Premiership teams and a lightness of touch provided by Jay-Jay Okocha, they offered enough to suggest that they could yet claim a notable continental scalp.

Davies and Okocha had good chances, but it was Bolton’s capacity to concede possession that let Marseilles off the hook and allowed the French team to come back into the game as the first half wore on. Taye Taiwo, the left back, twice tested Jaaskelainen with left-foot drives and Niang’s chance came five minutes after the restart when Bolton looked shaky.

The introduction of Gary Speed added some poise and there was yet another penalty appeal in the 62nd minute when Stelios Giannakopoulos appeared to go down under the challenge of Lorik Cana before Barthez smothered a close-range effort from Ricardo Vaz Té, a second-half substitute.

Desperate to secure an advantage, Bolton raised the tempo in the final minutes, with Stelios again coming close with a header that he sent into the side-netting, although Allardyce mused that, given the preceding decisions, the direction of the effort was irrelevant.

“No doubt if Stelios had scored right at the end, the referee would have given it offside, even though it wasn’t,” the manager said.

BOLTON WANDERERS (4-3-3): J Jaaskelainen — J O’Brien, T Ben Haim, B N’Gotty, R Gardner — K Nolan, A Faye, A Okocha (sub: G Speed, 60min) — S Giannakopoulos, J Borgetti (sub: R Vaz Té, 67), K Davies. Substitutes not used: I Walker, N Hunt, R Jaidi, O Perez, J Fojut.

MARSEILLES (5-3-2): F Barthez — D Ferreira, H Beye, F Dehu, B César, T Taiwo — S Nasri (sub: C Gimenez, 73), L Cana, W Oruma — F Ribery, M Niang (sub: A Cantareil, 90). Substitutes: C Carasso, J Delfim, A Meite, R Civelli, T Deruda. Booked: Oruma, Cana, César, Barthez, Ferreira.

Referee: O Benquerença (Portugal).

DIVETALK

Marseilles used all the tricks in the book to disrupt Bolton, never more so than when Mamadou Niang collapsed under the faintest of challenges. The forward received treatment before resuming play as if nothing had happened