Hughes Praises Referees Assistant

Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes was overjoyed that Darren Cann (Assistant Referee) changed his mind about his initial offside thought for Roque Santa Cruz's equaliser.

With Rovers 2-1 and time running out at first Cann flagged for offside and looked as though he had ruled out Santa Cruz's second equaliser (Santa had levelled after Darius Vassell's opener for Manchester City, only for Ryan Nelsen to put into his own net to restore Manchester City's lead) but after consulting with Referee Howard Webb it was decided that David Dunn (who would have been offside) and not Santa Cruz was the offender so the goal stood, this "brave" decision delighted Hughes.

Hughes told Sky Sports: "In fairness, he's been honest enough to admit he has got the decision wrong.

"When he put up the flag initially, he had to be really brave to go back on his initial decision.

"I think he flagged initially for David Dunn and thought he headed the ball. That wasn't the case, but he was big enough to admit that.

"I'm absolutely delighted he was able to do that. In the past I've questioned officials and assistant referees, but on this occasion I thought he was strong enough to change his mind."

The 2-2 draw ended Manchester City's 100% home record and also ended our run of four straight defeats which pleased Sparky no end, as he feels despite a poor first half showing we did enough in the second to warrant a point (at least) and takes plenty from this.

He added: "In the first half we never laid a glove on City, they played around us and we never got close, and never dictated to City in any way, shape or form.

"In the second half we needed a response and I thought in the second half we were excellent in that respect and took the game towards them.

"I felt there was only going to be one team to win the game. Thankfully we got the equaliser and in another 10, 15 minutes or so we probably would have won that game.

"It's a start for us. We have been on a little bit of a run and we've made life difficult for ourselves, and we have done it again today.

"But it's a positive result and we've got two games coming up we feel we've got real opportunities to get points on the board, so maybe this result and performance has kick-started us."


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