‘Nonsense’ decision in Everton’s Premier League defeat at Liverpool leaves Jack Grealish, David Moyes baffled – ‘I’ve never heard of that in my life’

Everton conceded two first-half goals to Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike, but were in the ascendancy at the time of Dewsbury-Hall’s booking, with Idrissa Gueye having cut into the hosts’ lead early in the second half.

After Everton were awarded a free-kick around 10 yards into Liverpool’s half, Dewsbury-Hall looked to get the game moving quickly, playing the ball quickly into the feet of Grealish in a central position, before England – with a sharp blow of his whistle – called for a halt.

England, unexpectedly, then cautioned Dewsbury-Hall – a decision Grealish told TNT Sports he had “never seen”.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) details in the Laws of the Game that a quick free-kick must have “referee’s permission,” but in most examples of a quick free-kick being taken without the referee’s discretion, play is pulled back without a booking.

Grealish was candid in his review of the officiating in Saturday’s early kick-off.

“I’ve never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick,” Grealish said. “I don’t know where that rule’s come in.

“Even the stoppage-time, three minutes and one minute? Come on. I’ve never seen that in the Premier League in the last two, three years.”

Asked if he was frustrated with the decisions at Anfield, Grealish replied: “Yeah of course. I get sometimes you want to let the game go, I completely get that.

“But you can’t not give something for us and, two seconds later, one of their defenders gets touched in the back and he goes down and he gives it. You can’t do that.

“I get it, sometimes you come to these stadiums and the crowd are on them, they feel like they’ve got to give it.

“We want to get the game going, we’re losing the game, I’ve never heard of that in my life.”

Grealish and Everton head coach Moyes were involved in some furious remonstrations with the officials upon the full-time whistle, and speaking to TNT Sports in the aftermath, Moyes lamented what he felt were “strange decisions” throughout the lunch-time spectacle.

“I’ve been here so many times,” Moyes said. “I don’t want to sound like an old fart coming on here all the time saying the same things.

“I found only three minutes (of stoppage-time) amazing at the end of the second half.

“We wanted to play quite quickly, I’ve seen lots of teams score from quick free-kicks but today we couldn’t do anything because we had to wait on the referee’s whistle all the time.

“I found some of the decisions really strange, but we’ve come to get used to that here, I think everyone is quite aware of that, certainly everyone connected with Everton.”

Their sentiments were echoed by the TNT Sports panel after the match, comprising Peter Crouch and Joleon Lescott, who just could not work out the reasoning for the decision to book Dewsbury-Hall.

“The referee, time and time again kept pulling it up, the fact they were taking quick free-kicks,” Crouch said.

“To book him for it, as he (Grealish) said, I was as flabbergasted as he was.

“We want to get on with the game, Everton are losing, they need to get the ball in the box, play quickly. The referee kept stopping.”

Lescott added: “You can get booked for time-wasting, but then get booked for doing it too quickly. It doesn’t make sense.

“It’s frustrating, especially when you’re behind. You just want to get the game going, you need to get a goal. It was a strange decision.”

Dewsbury-Hall’s yellow card took his tally for the season to four, meaning another caution will see him forced to serve a one-match suspension.

Victory for Liverpool on Saturday extended their perfect run of five consecutive victories to start their Premier League title defence, while Everton suffered their first defeat since the opening week.

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