Jake O’Brien has taken aim at referee Andrew Madley as he believes his Everton side were on the wrong end of a number of decisions against Manchester United. The Blues and Ruben Amorim’s side played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at Goodison Park, but the big talking point from the game came in second-half stoppage time.

It looked as though Everton, who had led 2-0 at the break, were going to be given a huge opportunity to claim all three points when they were awarded a penalty. At the time, it appeared that referee Madley pointed to the spot when Ashley Young was prevented from reaching a rebound by both Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire.

There appeared to be a shirt pull by De Ligt, with Maguire also in close proximity, as Young went down after Andre Onana parried away Idrissa Gueye’s shot. However, it later emerged that VAR intervened and asked the referee to look again at the contact from Maguire on Young, which was deemed not to be a foul.

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Everton’s players and supporters were left incensed by the call, and O’Brien believes not only was it a penalty, but there were a number of calls that went against his side at Goodison Park.

He said: “I think it was a penalty. From what I could see, it looked obvious, it didn’t even look like something you would check, but I think he has made, from what I think, a lot of wrong decisions today.

“I haven’t seen it back after the game yet or spoke too much about it, but we are all gutted in there; we think it was a penalty. It would have changed how it went at the end.”

Expanding further on Madley’s performance, O’Brien said: “I think the officiating, I think it wasn’t just the penalty at the end, I think there were a lot of decisions that didn’t go our way today - and on another day, would go our way. Today he made a lot of wrong decisions.”

First-half goals from Beto and Abdoulaye Doucoure had put the Blues in total control heading into the break. However, a Bruno Fernandes free-kick on 72 minutes handed Amorim’s side a lifeline before Manuel Ugarte drilled home an equaliser less than 10 minutes later.

And although the point moves the Blues another step closer to ensuring they will be playing Premier League football next season and extends their unbeaten run in the league to six games, O’Brien admits the draw feels like a defeat.

“We will take the point, but, at the end of the day, it kind of feels like a loss,” he said. “We should have come away with more.

“For 60 to 70 minutes, I think we were dominant and playing well, but bad decisions or tired legs kind of lost it for us at the end, and they punished us for it."

The Republic of Ireland international also believes that his side paid the price for sitting back and opting to soak up pressure rather than attacking United.

He said: “When you are 2-0 up, people say it’s nervy being two goals up because one (goal) could get the other team back in the game.

“When they got that goal, we definitely, for 20 minutes, sat back and soaked up the pressure, but we should have just pushed forward because I think we brought it back on ourselves and they punished us for it.

“It wasn’t an instruction [from the manager to sit back], it was just the way the game went. We were tired, and decisions didn’t go our way. I think we just soaked up the pressure, and then they punished us for it.

“It is a point, and we haven’t lost in a few games, but it does feel like a loss because we were the better team today.”