Steve Evans revealed that his frustrations over the non-award of two penalties against Reading have been backed up by referee bosses - but he also says there are still plenty of frustrations over missed chances too.

Boro lost 1-0 to the Royals on Tuesday night, a Vadaine Oliver own-goal the difference, but he had also pointed at a first-half handball and a second-half foul on Ben Thompson that were both waved away.

And with more than a full day to reflect, he was feeling very philosophical about the match.

Evans said: "It was a really good performance and people who were not at the game have asked me ‘what happened there’? 

"What happened is we missed a succession of chances. They took what wasn’t even an effort on goal, it was a long throw and an own goal. 

"We missed five really good chances and had two reasons why we should have a penalty kick at different ends of the game, one just before half-time and one three minutes from the end of normal time. 

"When you see the manner of why those penalties are not given, it's really disappointing. 

"I had a chat with the referee who was absolutely adamant, as he should be, that they were not penalties. 

"I don't think he’s have been so hot on that when he got home and looked at them over his Frosties. 

"I think his Frosties might have been half up his nose and half in his mouth as he would have been shellshocked. 

"We sent clips to the EFL on Wednesday morning and the one thing I've always maintained is you get absolute integrity and honesty back from Mike Jones and Steve Dunn and Paul Taylor, real good guys who have officiated at top level. 

"I'll just start with this first paragraph of the e-mail which said at 41 minutes, there is no doubt it's a clear and obvious handball and it's a penalty. 

"We didn’t get it. 

"I bear no more frustrations than a lot of other managers and I think the difficulty we’ve got in the EFL is the standard. 

"When I look at the heights of the Premier League, we're still seeing the best, the Olivers and the Taylors, and they are still getting it wrong and are going to VAR on a regular basis. 

"There may never be VAR down the leagues, given the cost, so there are always going to be problems. 

"At times, my frustrations are taken out with the likes of Mike Jones and Howard Webb. 

"But as a person, my humbleness goes to them because, like a football manager, you can only work with what you’ve got. 

"There are some really good referees in the EFL, ones where you see the name and know that even if they don’t have a good game, you won’t blink. 

"Others, you almost close your eyes in frustration. 

"And I'm not alone. When managers get together, we discuss referees and we discuss who we think is good and who wasn’t so good. 

"For the game to mature and improve, we need those performance levels to be better.  

"Notwithstanding that, I have to focus on my team and focus on getting things right. 

"So even allowing for the two penalty kicks we didn't get, our real disappointment doesn’t lie in that area. 

"We’ll focus on the chances we missed and we’ll focus on the opportunities in training to have the lads working harder and improving the levels needed to take those chance and to create further opportunities.