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For all their hard work – and wonder goals – Southampton were unable to get the result they deserved against Manchester United on Saturday, with Romelu Lukaku (2) and Andreas Pereira cancelling out Yan Valery and James Ward-Prowse strikes.
The scoreline could have been very different, though, had referee Stuart Atwell’s whistle blown a couple more times on the day, as Mark Clattenburg says in his Daily Mail feature.
“This [Chris Smalling on Ryan Bertrand] should have resulted in the award of a spot-kick, but it was a difficult one for referee Stuart Attwell.
“The holding of Bertrand’s shirt by Smalling happened on the blind side of the official. The best angle to see the offence would have been from behind the goal.”
“Southampton can feel wronged because they should also have been awarded a penalty for this one [Ashley Young on Bertrand].
“Bertrand ran across Young and the Manchester United defender grabbed the wrist of the forward, pulling him down. Attwell missed it and allowed play to continue.”
Meanwhile, former man in the middle Clattenburg thinks that Valery’s minimal contact with Alexis Sanchez was rightly dismissed by Atwell, but that will be of little concern to Saints fans, who will surely now be wishing that Clattenburg was on duty instead.
Ralph Hassenhuttl’s men were excellent man to man and should undoubtedly feel aggrieved that they didn’t take at least one point from Old Trafford considering Clattenburg’s outlook on the game’s big decisions.
Watch how to cross the road like a boss with freestyler Ben Nuttall in the video below…
When you’re in a fight for Premier League survival, these are the key things that you need to go your way and the Saints will be hoping their luck turns up from here as we enter the run-in.
