Mark Hughes was furious with referee Jon Moss after his part in Saints’ heart-breaking late setback at Everton.

Saints looked to be cruising to victory at Goodison Park when deep into stoppage time Moss gave a controversial free kick against Nathan Redmond.

Everton then appeared to take it from the wrong place and, after an error from Saints and via a heavy deflection, Tom Davies equalised.

Though Saints moved out of the bottom three thanks to the 1-1 draw it was a truly gutting moment for the team who also had Maya Yoshida sent off for a second yellow card.

Hughes said: “We didn’t get what we deserved clearly. I thought we were excellent from start to finish, had great control of the game, had a game plan, executed it.

“Everton found it very difficult to make any impression on us and second half they had to change their shape and match us up because they couldn’t get a foothold in the game and even so we were better at it than they were.

“The officials at the end of the game we feel haven’t covered themselves in glory.

“The moment I’m talking about is when Nathan Redmond is in the corner, done fantastic to nip the ball off the toes of their centre-half. The assistant is two or three yards away and has seen it wasn’t a foul but Jon Moss, as he is usually is about 30 yards behind play, has decided to give a free kick.

“To compound that situation he decides to allow them to take it from the wrong position about ten or 15 yards further ahead.

“We are still arguing it should have been a free run on goal for ourselves and at that point we are retreating and it’s difficult to get our shape back.

“Clearly we had lost a man to a sending off.

“In the end with hindsight, we got a bit tired as a consequence of being down to ten men and made wrong decisions.

“We should have allowed it to run out for a throw in and defend a throw in.

“Ryan tried to take the ball into a further area up the pitch and clip it up the line and got caught out and then they get a shot off which gets deflected.

“I’m telling you what you already know but we are just disappointed with the performance of the officials at the end because it’s had a direct impact on us.”