Jeff Winter believes James Tarkowski should have seen red for a first half challenge on Cameron Archer
Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter believes there should have been a red card in Everton’s defeat at Southampton – but not the one Sean Dyche wanted. The Blues boss declared himself “amazed” Jan Bednarek avoided being sent off after he hauled down Beto late in the second half.
The forward appeared to have survived Bednarek’s desperate lunge only to have his arm tugged back, preventing Beto from cutting across the box.
It was a huge call with the game goalless. After the match, Dyche said: “I am very, very surprised by the chance for the sending off. When you are an ex-defender, you are thinking you are off – as soon as you do that. Beto is clearly in his stride, he is breaking across.”
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Taylor Harwood-Bellis was in the middle and the belief he could have got back to put pressure on Beto led referee Andy Madley to issue a yellow card, not a red one.
For another ex-top flight ref, Dermot Gallagher, it was the right call. He said: “This is all about the covering player. He’s out on the wing and there’s no doubt he’s going to come inside but, by that time, they think the covering player will get across. It’s decided it’s a possible goalscoring opportunity, as opposed to an obvious goalscoring opportunity.”
Winter agreed with Gallagher – and VAR, which checked the decision – but Dyche said on Saturday: “I’m amazed… the defender is a long way off in my opinion. I can’t see how he’s going to get there. And they don’t give that and I think that is a massive decision in a game like this.”
Speaking to Grosvenor Casino, Winter instead believes it was Everton that should have been reduced to 10 men after James Tarkowski lunged into Cameron Archer in the first half.
He was booked, but Winter believed the centre back went in with “excessive” force.
He said: “Now, maybe that’s, as people say, too early in the game, if he committed that 20-30 minutes later, the referee might have looked at it differently.
“But if he’d severely injured the player, it doesn’t matter whether it’s in the first minute or the 91st minute, and I fail to see how that wasn’t a red card. He got away with the yellow, but to me, I thought it was a definite red card. He flew into him, so the excessive force is there. He came in dangerously from behind, with no chance of winning the ball.”
