Howard Webb, the English referee who took charge of Sunday's World Cup final, has defended his handling of the match - in which he issued 14 bookings, including two to the Dutch defender John Heitinga.

Webb, 39, was widely criticised by Dutch media and players following their 1-0 loss to Spain, but the Yorkshireman said he was forced to show all the yellow cards.

"We don't feel that we had much choice except to manage the game in the way we did. We came away feeling satisfied that we'd done a tough job in difficult circumstances to the best of our abilities," he said.

Bert Van Marwijk, the Oranje coach, complained that Webb should have sent off Carles Puyol early in the match. TV replays showed his challenge on Arjen Robben was fair.

Holland should also clearly have been reduced to 10 men during the first-half when Nigel de Jong's challenge on Xabi Alonso could have left stud marks deeply imprinted on the Spanish midfielder's chest.

Van Marwijk was in no doubt over Webb's performance, but the Football Association have praised him and Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has criticised the Dutch players.

Webb broke his silence on Tuesday night, saying he and his assistants had no choice but to show so many yellow cards.

He also said that he warned players early on over rule infringement but those warnings were ignored.

"We tried to apply some common sense officiating given the magnitude of the occasion for both sides - advising players early on for some of their tackling, sending players away when they were surrounding the officials, and speaking to their senior colleagues to try to calm them down," he added.

"It was an extremely challenging match to handle, but it would have been so for any referee. It is one of the toughest games we will ever be involved in and we feel that we worked hard to keep the focus on the football as much as possible."