Mark Hughes expressed his frustration with the VAR system and referee Martin Atkinson after Saints had what they felt was a perfectly goal ruled out in the FA Cup semi-final.

Hughes claimed that Atkinson didn’t consult with the video official after deciding that Charlie Austin had fouled Willy Caballero as the Chelsea keeper appeared to spill a high ball over his goalline.

The Saints manager felt it was a decisive moment in the game, and was equally flummoxed by not getting a penalty in the 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Wembley.

He said: “Disappointed because we wanted to progress in the competition and we haven’t been able to do that.

“Credit to Chelsea because they are an outstanding side and created moments that have been able to take the game in their direction.

“There is disappointment along with that in our point of view because the situation where the goalkeeper has made a wrong decision and basically thrown the ball in the back of his net because of poor goalkeeping if ever there was a situation for a video referee to play a hand, step in and say we need to review it that was the moment.

“It was a match defining moment, a key time for us. If we get the goal back then then who knows how the game might unfold.

“Why it hasn’t been referred I don’t know.

“Whether the referee has said it’s a foul which clearly it wasn’t all he knew was on his watch it lit up and told him it as a goal but for whatever reasons he didn’t want to give that.

“He missed a clear handball as well from the following corner where Giroud’s handballed and another one they could have reviewed, but probably it was a little bit too quick for them because that’s what seemed to be happening all day in all honesty.

“We are disappointed with the officials on the day and whoever it is that sits in a darkened room and makes these decisions whether you go to video or not.”

Saints played a very cagey game in the first half but conceded just moments after the kick-off in the second period to put them on the backfoot at Wembley.

“You have to understand you can’t open up too readily against Chelsea because of the quality they’ve got and once they went in the lead it was in their hands and they have some of the best players to play counter attack,” reflected Hughes.

“The likes of Hazard is devastating if you open up too early and too readily.

“We had a go, we took centre halves off, we put forwards on. It’s not as if we were waiting for the inevitable, we were trying to effect things but just came up a little bit short.”

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