Roger Johnson's first goal in a Blues shirt after just four minutes and Graig Gardner's effort five minutes into the second half had given Blues a 2-0 lead against a Trotters side who had to play almost an hour with ten men having had goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen sent off for slapping Johnson in the face in the 38th minute.
Bolton fought back to earn a 2-2 draw with goals from a contentious penalty decision on 70 minutes which Kevin Davies despatched, after he himself was adjudged to have been fouled in the box by Johnson, and a Robbie Blake free-kick which came about when Barry Ferguson was adjudged by referee Kevin Friend to have fouled Gary Cahill just outside the box with nine minutes of normal time remaining.
"It's feels like a defeat,.We are quite sore about it and the manner in which we lost the goals," McLeish said after the match.
"Hopefully in the grand scheme of things, it will prove to be a good away point.
"We're really disappointed with the decisions that led to Bolton's two goals, the penalty and the free-kick, for me you are going to see ten penalties a game for incidents like that.
"If that was a penalty - how many challenges do you see like that every week? It's extremely soft, let's hope there is some consistency.
"As for the free kick I thought it was a foul on Ferguson,"