Saturday 21 October 2017 19:06, UK
Mark Hughes was unimpressed with Bournemouth's time-wasting tactics after they beat his Stoke City side 2-1 at the Bet 365 Stadium on Saturday.
Bournemouth raced into a two-goal lead in the first half courtesy of a well-taken strike from Andrew Surman and a penalty from Junior Stanislas, before Mame Biram Diouf grabbed a consolation for the hosts just past the hour mark.
The result means that Stoke have slipped into the bottom three and are now just a place and a point better off than Bournemouth in the Premier League table.
Both managers lamented the weather conditions in their post-match interviews, and while Hughes admitted that his side struggled to cope with the swirling wind in the first half, he was critical of Bournemouth's negative approach.
"We didn't cope too well with the conditions in the first half and obviously we made a couple of mistakes, giving away a penalty almost immediately after they had scored the opening goal," he said.
"Second half, obviously with the wind on our backs, we made a lot better use of the ball and got some decent balls in from good areas but we couldn't find those final touches that we needed.
"Bournemouth, as is their want - and they did exactly the same last year - they just killed the game and wasted time. Unfortunately when you go behind it is difficult and as an away team why wouldn't they do that?
"In the second half we were the team that was really trying to force the issue whereas Bournemouth were just trying to keep us at bay but the damage was done in the first half unfortunately."
