Everton vs Stoke: Mark Hughes fears Potters are being singled out on new shirt-pulling rules

Television replays showed minimal contact between Phil Bardsley and Ashley Williams for the game's decisive penalty

Hughes does not the rule will be enforced as regularly in games featuring bigger clubs (Getty)

Mark Hughes said he feared his Stoke City team were being singled out by referees in the clampdown on shirt-pulling after they were on the receiving end of a second contentious decision in as many weeks at Everton on Saturday.

Stoke lost the game 1-0 after Phil Bardsley was judged by referee Michael Oliver to have fouled Ashley Williams in the penalty box, and Leighton Baines’ ensuing penalty found the net via a deflection off Shay Given.

Television replays showed minimal contact between Bardsley and Williams, however, and an unhappy Hughes said: “I feared this would happen at the beginning of the season – that we would be penalised more readily than other teams, I based that on the fact it has happened to me with previous teams I have been involved with. Teams like ourselves seem to be the ones that get punished.”

Hughes cited an incident involving Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen in the day’s lunchtime match against Liverpool, when Vertonghen received a verbal warning after grappling with Liverpool centre-back Joel Matip. “There was a similar incident in the Tottenham game earlier in the day and that wasn’t given because you had two high-profile teams on the TV and they don’t get those penalties awarded against them.”

In Stoke’s home defeat by Manchester City last weekend, Ryan Shawcross was penalised by referee Mike Dean for holding Nicolas Otamendi. Later in the game Dean awarded Stoke a penalty after ruling that Raheem Sterling had impeded Shawcross.

Hughes added: “I am more frustrated with this one than the Man City one as in fairness you could see why that was given but the one today I thought there was a lot of movement in the box, Ashley Williams has gone down, whether or not he has clipped his own heels or he has stepped across Phil Bardsley. There was no pushing or pulling, it wasn’t as if he was dragged down.”

There was a similar incident in the Tottenham game earlier in the day and that wasn’t given because you had two high-profile teams on the TV...

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In the face of these perceived injustices, Hughes added that he was likely to request a meeting with referees’ chief Mike Riley. “I think we probably would do. Would it make any difference? I am not too sure. It needs to be right across the board, I am sure there’ll be many incidents similar to the one today.”

The Stoke manager added that that he would consider his team’s approach to set plays in response to the clampdown. “We are at the point where we have to consider zonal marking. We may have to take certain individuals away from man-marking – some of our key defenders are the ones that seem to be under pressure for whatever reason.”