Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has insisted that his side did not deserve to be beaten late on by Liverpool at Anfield this afternoon.
An 86th-minute goal from Glen Johnson ensured that the hosts clinched a 1-0 win which left the Potters having suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in the Premier League this season.
Hughes told BBC Sport: "We are disappointed to lose the game at the end like that. On balance of play I don't think anyone really deserved to win. We certainly didn't feel we deserved to lose.
"For long periods in the game we were in the ascendancy. We just got undone by a long ball into the box. Rickie Lambert has made it his own and a Liverpool player was the first to react. I was really pleased with Bojan Krkic, who was the most accomplished player on the pitch today.
"The disappointment from our point of view is we can't keep a clean sheet at the moment and that is holding us back. We had a performance that merited something today, probably not the three points. The game became more open in second half, maybe because we became encouraged that we could get something from the game."
The defeat leaves Stoke 12th in the table, one place behind Liverpool.
Sian Cowper
