Mark Hughes furious after Liverpool keeper escapes red card

Stoke manager Mark Hughes was left fuming after claiming the referee got a big decision wrong on Wednesday night.

Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was lucky to stay on the pitch with the score at 1-0 after a wild hack at Stoke forward Mame Diouf, but referee Martin Atkinson only handed the keeper a yellow card.

That infuriated Potters manager Hughes and his players and to make matters worse for the hosts Xherdan Shaqiri’s free-kick was then deflected wide as Liverpool claimed a 3-0 win.

Opposite number Jurgen Klopp though thought Atkinson had got it right and claimed Mignolet was not the last man.

Hughes though was furious:  “It is clearly a goal-scoring opportunity, there would be down to 10 men and it is a completely different game.

The one thing you want from the referees is to get the big decisions right. Tonight he didn’t.”

“From that point we are trying to get back into the game and we had to take risks. Overall we are disappointed, but we got back into the game after a slow start.

“If we play with that determination and drive in our play we will be all right. It is clearly a massive game coming up against Swansea.”