Young Wanderers centre half Gary Cahill was at a loss to explain why his 45th-minute header was chalked out at the Reebok Stadium. It was a goal that would have sent Wanderers in level at half-time aganst Liverpool, instead of ending with a 2-0 reverse.

Styles – who in September apologised to Gary Megson after wrongly awarding a penalty to Manchester United at Old Trafford – judged that Kevin Nolan had fouled Reds keeper Pepe Reina before the ball went into the net.

Liverpool eventually doubled their advantage to win the game 2-0, leaving Cahill to reflect on another erratic afternoon’s work by the Hampshire-based official.

“I don’t want to start picking and poking but there were a couple of decisions that absolutely baffled me,” he said.

“Players go home and analyse their game and sometimes you think ‘oh, I did terribly there, or did this and that’ and it has got to be the same for referees. I hope he went home and is very disappointed with his performance.”

Wanderers’ set-pieces caused Liverpool problems throughout the game and it was from Matty Taylor’s whipped corner that Cahill thought he had scored his second goal of the season.

He explained: “We lined up Kevin Davies front post, me back post and Kevin Nolan in front of the goalkeeper. The keeper pushed Kevin in the back once, then returned to his position, arms by his side. The ball came in and the keeper pushed him again and held his shirt.

“I headed the ball in but I’ll leave it to everyone else to decide why it was ruled out, because I don’t know.

“There’s no shadow of a doubt that the decision was the turning point of the game. The goal should have stood.

“For some reason, I don’t know why, we don’t seem to be getting the rub of the green when these major decisions are being made.”

Cahill was left disappointed that the Whites had not been able to build on their recent good form.

“Coming off the back of two wins, we looked to cause a bit of an upset and it didn’t happen,” he said.

“We changed the shape of the side after the first half and we responded by coming out for the second half a lot stronger.

“The players they have got are so comfortable on the ball with a lot of quality but we asked a lot more questions of them after the break.

“If we’d have gone in at 1-1 and then come out and played like that with our tails up, then who knows?”