Cut the blame game and just swallow your reffing medicine

SOUTHAMPTON don’t want Lee Mason and Mike Dean to referee their matches again. Aw, diddums.

The knee-jerk reaction to being smashed out of sight at Old Trafford in midweek was to blame the match officials.

Yes, it was the fault of those two that NINE goals were shipped.

And, dammit, the referee was wrong to award a penalty when the Saints were already six down – so let’s lash out at the rule enforcers.

Just add it to the list of unjust decisions which prove officialdom has clearly got it in for the cry baby whining from the side.

I know the red card against Jan Bednarek has been overturned because Dean didn’t take the hint that – horror of horrors – he may have made a mistake after being asked to review his decision on VAR.

But as a piece of prima facie evidence that a conspiracy is being mounted against the south coast club, it is not even wafer thin. Look, it was a horrible night for Ralph Hasenhuttl after rookie Alex Jankewitz was dismissed just 80 seconds in for a god-awful lunge on Scott Mctominay.

Going up to Old Trafford with a devil-may-care attitude like Leeds United, or without several recognised first-teamers as the Saints were, is asking for trouble.

Even with 11 men on the pitch. To do it against 10...well, good luck.

The Saints even had VAR come down against them when Che Adams had a goal chalked off.

Coming on the back of another injury-time sickener when Danny Ings’ arm was deemed offside against Villa when Mason was in charge, and it would be easy to think the world was against them.

You could see the Austrian’s frustration growing every time the camera panned to him during that nine-goal horror show.

None of it is fair. The injuries, the academy boys he’s having to blood and these slimline decisions that are going against him.

Toss into the mix a run of matches without a win and it’s all giving Hasenhuttl something to start the waterworks over.

It was my esteemed predecessor writing this column, Dave Kidd, whose Twitter biography states that he was: ‘Biased against your football club.’ And that’s the default setting of every fan – that there’s been some grave injustice committed by the match officials against their team.

Every week. Without exception.

Referees are supposed to see the colour of the shirt and that’s it. No fear or favour. Former top ‘MPS urge action on Russian-owned football clubs,’ ran one headline this week. Too late.

What are they going to do to Everton and Chelsea, with Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich both significant stakeholders? Answer: Absolutely nothing.

And still Mike Ashley cannot get the go-ahead to sell Newcastle United to the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia.

Where’s the consistency? You go figure. official Mark Clattenburg hasn’t helped much either by revealing that Sir Alex Ferguson’s rants used to win the Scot the benefit of the doubt in marginal decisions.

But there’s a deeper point to make here.

The Premier League need to stop this moaning from the clubs. And stop it right now.

As an impartial observer, Bednarek’s dismissal was the only one they got blatantly wrong.

And Dean (left, with Hasenhuttl) needs to take responsibility for that.

If I were in charge of the match list, I’d be telling Southampton and everyone else – from the top – that there will be no trying to pick and choose referees.

It’s not up to individual clubs to say who they do and don’t want to officiate.

That’s a one-way ticket to oblivion.

The minute clubs start saying who they do and don’t want standing in the middle, we’re going down a road where the only destination is more heartache, recrimination, rancour and downright spite.