"Embarrassing" - Mike Dean reacts to controversial flashpoint in Southampton v Birmingham City clash | OneFootball

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In the end, Southampton made light work of Birmingham City in Saturday afternoon's early Championship kick-off.

With the Saints in good form heading into the clash, and the Blues having lost both of their matches under Wayne Rooney,

Southampton were widely expected to be the dominant side, and it showed.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis gave the home side an early lead in just the ninth minute, for example, and by the 22nd minute mark, after some very passive Blues defending, Carlos Alcaraz doubled Southampton's lead.

A second half strike from Jay Stansfield turned out to be nothing more than a consolation goal in the end, but for a period, it got Birmingham back into the game in the second half.

That was before Adam Armstrong sealed all three points for the Saints in the 86th minute.

Should Birmingham City have had a penalty v Southampton?

However, there was a very controversial flashpoint during the match, when, in the first half, with Blues 2-0 down, Southampton goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu clattered into Birmingham attacker Oli Burke.

Despite Burke clearly getting to the ball with his head first, and the Saints keeper completely clattering him afterwards, no penalty was awarded.

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean, though, feels it was an easy decision for the officials, and one that is embarrassing that they did not get right.

Speaking live on Sky Sports on Saturday afternoon, Dean offered the following reaction to the decision not to award a penalty: “It’s embarrassing to be fair, it's such a bad decision,"

"The Birmingham player has won the ball, the keeper has just smashed him in the back.

"It’s not even a hard decision, as much as I don’t like hammering refs and officials, it’s such a poor decision, it’s such an easy decision to give.

"The ‘keeper is nowhere near the ball, Jutkiewicz [it was actually Burke] has won the header and he has just been wiped out, it’s a penalty all day."

At the time of the challenge, Wayne Rooney looked frustrated on the touchline not to have seen his side awarded a spot-kick.

He too felt it was a penalty, telling the media fafter the match, via SportsMax: "These decisions happen when you don’t have VAR,” said Rooney. “I’m not a fan of VAR and you accept referees and linesmen might make mistakes but what you can’t accept is the penalty decision.

“It is ridiculous and everyone in the stadium could see it.

“The keeper is committed and is coming at pace and is reckless. If he is coming like that then he has to win the ball but he absolutely wipes out Burkey. “The most frustrating thing is that the fourth official told me that the referee was clear in his decision and wasn’t willing to take advice from his fourth official and assistant. “He was clear there was minimal contact. That is a worry for me. “I hope VAR doesn’t filter down but we would have got a penalty if VAR was here.

“I know referees will make mistakes, I can accept that but for me that was too much and a big error.”

What did Russell Martin say about the penalty incident?

Even Southampton boss Russell Martin could not hide that his side had got one, telling the media, via SportsMax: "I haven’t seen it back but at the time I thought it was a penalty."

“I feel for Wayne and if he’s frustrated with that I would be as well.

“It was a moment of madness from Gav. He hadn’t had a lot to do at that point.”

After the result, Southampton sit fourth in the Championship standings, whilst Birmingham City dropped down to 14th.