JONATHAN Woodgate insisted referee Tony Harrington should have sent off Watford’s Nathaniel Chalobah before proceedings erupted at Vitality Stadium.

Tensions started to boil over on the south coast when Jefferson Lerma leaped with Chalobah during the second half to compete for a throw-in, with the score at 0-0.

Former Chelsea youngster Chalobah appeared to raise his hand to the face of Colombian Lerma in the aftermath but was let off with a yellow card.

From the resulting free-kick, Steve Cook launched a 50-yard ball forward to release Arnaut Danjuma to fire home the winner for Cherries from a tight angle.

“I thought Nathaniel should have been sent off for the slap, really,” said Woodgate.

“If you raise your hands at someone you’ve got to get a red card no matter the force of the slap.

“I thought the referee got that one wrong but listen, it is what it is, they ended up getting a red card anyway.”

Chalobah was replaced by Dan Gosling after 76 minutes. The drama was not over however, as striker Joao Pedro was dismissed for a second bookable offence after sliding in on Lerma.

Jack Wilshere was then given his marching orders for an altercation with Tom Cleverley in the aftermath – his second booking in five minutes having come on as a second-half substitute for Cherries.

Woodgate added: “It doesn’t always happen on football pitches but it just shows passionate players wanting to do their best for the football club. Things can boil over at times.”

Watford manager Xisco Munoz said: “Football is an emotional game. I want to only speak about positive things about my team. We tried to play in the last second.

“I am disappointed with the result but not the performance. My team was ambitious and played very hard.

“I said to the guys, ‘we need to keep going,’ because we were in a very good moment with four wins in a row. This is not easy in the Championship.”

On Joao Pedro’s sending off, Xisco added: “I can see why he received the red card.”