Mark Hughes: "Referee needs to look at his performance"

Stoke City boss Mark Hughes has said that he is "absolutely dismayed" by the performance of referee Martin Atkinson in his side's 5-1 defeat to Newcastle United on Boxing Day.

The Welshman questioned a number of the decisions made by the official, including a penalty and two first-half red cards for Glenn Whelan and Marc Wilson.

Hughes, who was also dismissed from the dugout by Atkinson, has insisted that the decisions made by Atkinson "had a direct impact on the result" after the Potters had taken an early lead.

"I think the referee needs to look at his performance," Hughes said in his post-match press conference. "I thought from one of our arguably more senior referees I was absolutely dismayed by his performance to be perfectly honest.

"Up to the point where the first sending off was given I thought we were totally in control of the game, 1-0 to the good. Newcastle were finding it very difficult to really have an impact on the game.

"We always say, managers, players, everybody, that you just want for the referees to make decisions that are correct and make the key decisions that don't have a direct impact on the result. Unfortunately some of Martin's decisions today had a direct impact on the result."

Stoke sit in 10th place in the Premier League table.