ALAN SHEARER last night accused referee Rob Styles of crumbling under pressure - but claimed Premiership officials are being hindered by stringent guidelines.

Styles sent off two players and issued ten cautions at Goodison on Saturday, even though the match never threatened to boil over.

His card-happy performance came just three weeks after he showed three red cards when Chelsea hosted Leicester City.

But while Shearer hinted at his dissatisfaction with Styles, the Newcastle United captain insisted the clampdown on foul play was inhibiting officials.

He said: "Referees are getting told to do things in certain ways that maybe they wouldn't want to if they were allowed to referee it normally. But this referee made it difficult for himself to begin with because there were one or two honest tackles going in and he saw fit to book them.

"If there was then another identical challenge, he had to give a booking for that as well.

"Referees are under pressure - but so are the managers and the players, and we can handle it. I can't understand it.

"We've had this referee before and I think he's refereed really well then. But it's a virtually impossible job when there are so many bookings early on.

"The tone was set and he had to carry on like that. There wasn't really a malicious challenge out there." Shearer had an animated discussion with Styles as they left the pitch at half time, the striker clearly telling the referee that Laurent Robert ought not to have been sent off.

Robert was shown his second yellow card for a late challenge on Tobias Linderoth, leaping at the Everton midfielder rather than alongside him.

But Shearer said: "I didn't think Laurent went in to hurt the Everton player.

"If he'd wanted to hurt him, he could have jumped in with his elbow, which would have been malicious. But he jumped with his arms down."

Sir Bobby Robson also defended Robert, who had earlier been booked following a foul on former Newcastle man Steve Watson.

He said: "Laurent's challenge wasn't malicious or nasty. He jumped into the guy and turned his back, but the power of the people in the stands can affect decisions by the referee.

"So many yellow and red cards give a false impression of the game because it wasn't violent."

Everton manager David Moyes refused to condemn Styles but instead pointed the finger of blame at the game's governing bodies.

He said: "I've made a pact with myself not to make any controversial statements about referees, but maybe we should start questioning the people who appoint them rather than the referees."