Former referee Graham Poll believes Rob Styles should not officiate any games next week after his "big mistake" in awarding Chelsea a crucial penalty against Liverpool.

Styles has been heavily criticised for his decision to penalise Steve Finnan as the full-back appeared to make no contact with Florent Malouda in the 1-1 draw at Anfield yesterday.

Poll, who retired at the end of last season, has advised Styles to take next weekend off. "What he will do, I would venture to suggest, is probably have a weekend off next week," he said. "If that was me, I'd certainly be happy to have a weekend off, lick my wounds, regain my strength and confidence and come back."

However Jeff Winter, another former referee, believes the Premier League cannot afford to let Styles sit out this weekend's fixtures. "The problem is at Premier League level, we saw referees retire at the end of last season," Winter said. "They haven't exactly got the numbers."


On the penalty incident, Poll said: "It was a big mistake. One thing a referee knows is that he will make a mistake in a match. What they are hoping is it's not crucial to the outcome of the match. Unfortunately for Rob Styles, that mistake with the penalty was crucial to the match. Who knows? It could be crucial to the season."

Winter added: "You can't defend the decision. It clearly wasn't a penalty and did change the outcome of the game."

Poll believes Styles was not in the best position to award a penalty. "Unfortunately for Rob, he was sucked across the field of play," he said. "If he'd been in a normal position for a referee, he would have seen it how we've seen it on the television and he would never have given a penalty."

Winter believes Styles was too close to play, saying: "He was that close to play, he didn't get a decent angle on it."

Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, demanded an apology from Styles over the incident, claiming players are always saying sorry for their mistakes.

But Poll refuted this, claiming: "It's a two-way street. I've never yet heard a player come out and apologise for his actions. Maybe Rob Styles will choose to do so in the fullness of time."