Jon Moss' final game as a Premier League referee ended in controversy as Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was left raging.
Hasenhuttl’s side went down 4-1 at the King Power but the Austrian coach felt the 49th minute opener was decisive and unjust. Moss wrongly awarded the ball to City after a stoppage, rather than Southampton.
Keeper Kasper Schmeichel then thumped it down the field and Jamie Vardy, who was caught by Oriol Romeu causing the stoppage, forced Lyanco into an error before James Maddison subsequently opened the scoring. Hasenhuttl asked Leicester to let Southampton level the scores with an unopposed goal from kick off but the hosts refused.
Hasenhuttl, whose side finished without a win in six games, fumed: “My view in football is when you have the ball and the referee stops it, you get the ball back but today it was different.
“It is hard to understand and the offer I made was to let us score a goal after the kick off. They didn’t take it and pressed us immediately again. We always speak about respect and fair play. For me it is not acceptable to be honest.
“I don’t want to be a bad loser. Such a situation changes everything. Everyone has seen the situation was not fair how the goal happened. When you kick it long and start attacking, it is not giving the ball back.”
Leicester finished eighth with the emphatic win as Maddison, Vardy and a double from Ayoze Perez left them with 10 points from their final four games.
Boss Brendan Rodgers, whose side played 58 games this term, said: “I think if the centre-half doesn’t make a mistake there is no drama. All we can do is play to the whistle.”
