IRATE skipper Tommy Elphick insisted Cherries had been walloped by a double whammy in the aftermath of their controversial defeat at Liverpool.

With the eyes of the world watching Sky’s Monday Night Football, social media went bananas as Elphick had a goal chalked off by referee Craig Pawson before the Reds benefited from an offside goal that ultimately settled matters.

The Cherries captain was penalised for a push on marker Dejan Lovren as he headed in a fifth-minute corner in front of the band of raucous visiting fans at Anfield.

And while a visibly-vexed Elphick showed restraint when delivering his verdict on the officials, he was “100 per cent” certain his effort should have stood.

Elphick told the Daily Echo: “I felt like I had got a march on Lovren and used my hands to elevate myself, get above him and keep myself there. I had my hands above his shoulders and the referee penalised me for pushing.

“There was nothing in it. I think he felt like he was scrambling a bit and reacted to my hands being on his shoulders but when you go up for a header, you cannot jump with your arms straight down by your side.

“Things happen so quickly and the officials have a difficult job and in general, the referee was very good on set pieces and noticed when Liverpool were trying to work blocks.

“The goal should have stood but it went against us and we cannot change anything now.”

Meanwhile, Elphick argued Cherries had been the victim of the latest bout of confusion over the intricacies of the offside rule.

Over the summer, FIFA changed the definition of interfering with an opponent to “preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or movement or challenging an opponent for the ball.”

Throughout Liverpool’s cleverly-worked corner routine between Jordan Henderson and Nathaniel Clyne, Philippe Coutinho was stood in an offside position in front of Cherries keeper Artur Boruc.

When Henderson’s centre arrived, Coutinho made a play for the ball but missed, leaving a distracted Boruc unable to deal with Christian Benteke’s far-post finish.

Elphick added: “We were briefed so much over the summer about the new rules and it was a classic case of that. We pride ourselves on our backline and as soon as that ball was played, we stepped out in unison to leave Coutinho offside.

“The minute he went for the ball, it killed the big man (Boruc) because he had to react to what was in front of him.

“Again, it was a tough one for the assistant because it happened so quickly but it was hard to take because we work on these things to put them into practice. The rule should work for defenders but didn’t.

“A few of the lads asked (the referee) about the second one but he didn’t really seem to understand what we were saying. I am sure he would have an explanation if he was asked in the cold light of day but unfortunately, we don’t get those privileges.

“We were gutted not to take anything from the past two games because we felt like our performances deserved more.”