Sunday 21 August 2016 01:34, UK
Mark Hughes has urged referees to be consistent with penalty decisions over the course of the season following Stoke's 4-1 defeat to Man City on Saturday.
Mike Dean awarded a spot-kick to either side at the bet365 Stadium, penalising Ryan Shawcross and Raheem Sterling for similar offences at corner kicks.
Sergio Aguero got the ball rolling for City when he scored from the spot after 27 minutes, and Hughes said the penalty decision came at a critical time for his side.
"For long periods I thought we acquitted ourselves really well, especially in the first half," the Stoke boss told Sky Sports.
"The debate tomorrow will be the decisions of the referee for the penalties for both sides.
"As usual at this time of the year there is a directive out there and certain teams maybe get penalised for that. That's fine as long as it is consistent until the end of the season. Usually it isn't, so we will have to wait and see.
"The penalty award shook us because at that point I thought we were playing well and on the front foot, asking questions of City. We weren't allowing them to get a foothold in the game and that stopped us in our tracks.
"The second goal was poor defending, and we have players that are expected to do certain things in certain situations and we didn't, and good players will punish you.
"At 2-0 at half-time we were disappointed because I don't think we deserved that but we came out and it was another debatable penalty. We benefitted from it this time, and we kept on plugging away but in the end the game got taken away from us by the third and fourth goals.
"It knocked the stuffing out of us and wasn't a true reflection on the game in my view. It's a 4-1 defeat so we're hurting at the moment."
When asked if he took issue with the decision to penalise Shawcross, Hughes added: "It was a debate that was had and we all knew about it so we can't complain too much.
"All I'm saying is it needs to be invoked in this game and in every other game. I have found in my experience these new directives are jumped on in the opening weeks of the season and then everyone forgets them.
"Unfortunately we've had a penalty go against us in a key period of the game."
