Friday 2 January 2015 06:33, UK
Mark Hughes felt his Stoke City side deserved all three points after being denied two penalties in their 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
The Potters took a second-minute lead through Ryan Shawcross at the Britannia Stadium but were pegged back by Radamel Falcao’s goal and although Peter Crouch hit a post in the second half, neither side could find a winner.
Crouch might also have won a penalty when Chris Smalling blocked his header with an arm, while Geoff Cameron also appeared to be kicked by Robin van Persie when well placed to score.
“We’re disappointed, clearly,” Hughes told Sky Sports. “In terms of chances created, pressure and momentum, we were certainly the team most likely to score.
“We’ve had two penalties in our view not given. The obvious one was Peter Crouch as he’s had a great header, lost his marker and the ball is heading towards goal.
"I think it’s an unnatural movement from Smalling. He’s basically batted the ball down. It’s a clear penalty and I don’t know why the ref hasn’t given that – he’s only a few yards away. He needs to be strong in that situation.
“And then Pete’s flicked the ball on to the post. If you look closely Geoff Cameron is waiting to put the ball into the net and he gets taken out.
“So from our point of view we’re disappointed because we’ve gone up against a good team and I thought, on the day, we were certainly the better team. That shows how far we’ve come.”
United seemed unable to deal with long balls in behind their defence and Hughes admitted he had tailored his tactics to the blustery conditions.
“We played to our strengths,” he added. “Today wasn’t the day to get the ball down. I thought tactically we were spot on.
“They found it very difficult to get their key players on the ball. A lot of the time they had Jonny Evans and Phil Jones as the ones trying to create for them and we were quite happy with that as that’s what we tried to do to them."
Stoke were without Bojan with a hamstring injury, but Hughes was relaxed about the situation and suggested the Spaniard will be back before too long.
"We've had him checked and he's got a slight tear in his hamstring," he said. "It's only grade one and they can be anything from 10 days to a couple of weeks, so we're hoping it's the shorter period.
"The lads did great today, but obviously, possibly with a little bit more of his craft today, that might have been the difference."
