EVERTON boss Sean Dyche fumed as he insisted the "big key" refereeing decisions went against his team when they were beaten 1-0 at Saints.

Dyche was left furious with the officials after Russell Martin's side ended their five-match unbeaten run with a first win of the Premier League season.

Dyche believes referee Andy Madley should have sent defender Jan Bednarek off for a foul on Beto, despite Taylor Harwood-Bellis tracking in cover.

VAR checked the decision and decided not to upgrade the Pole's yellow card leaving Dyche, who accepted VAR intervention for the goal, baffled.

“If you are offside you are offside, I have got no problem with that. But I am very, very surprised by the chance for the sending off," said Dyche. 

Sean Dyche engaged in discussions with fourth official James BellSean Dyche engaged in discussions with fourth official James Bell (Image: PA)

"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.

“The thing that worries me about the game is players that don’t go down and roll around don’t get decisions and if you do they seem to.

"I have mentioned this many times, players who are trying to stay on their feet - you can see clearly Beto is trying to stay on his feet to score a goal.

"He doesn’t do anything and nothing gets given other than a yellow card. 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.”

Dyche made no mention of a James Tarkowski booking for a potentially dangerous sliding challenge on Cameron Archer in the first half of the match.

The 31 year old former Burnley stalwart came from behind with no chance of getting the ball but, like Bednarek, escaped further punishment.

Dyche insisted his Toffees side were unlucky to leave St Mary's without a point and suggested he did not feel threatened by the struggling Saints.

"We’d controlled a lot of the game. We didn't need to use the ball as much because they had the ball, but they never really opened us up," said Dyche.

"When we did have it, I thought we asked questions of them. It's not really a sloppy goal, we should score and they get a breakaway.

"Sometimes that happens from a misshapen team and they get a goal out of nothing - but the big key decisions went against us."