Monday 25 August 2014 06:24, UK
Mark Hughes feels that Stoke City ‘need to get up to speed quickly’ following a 1-1 draw with Hull City at the KC Stadium.
Stoke lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa on the opening day of the season last weekend and fell behind at 10-man Hull to Nikica Jelavic’s goal just before half-time.
Ryan Shawcross’ scruffy goal earned the visitors a point with seven minutes to go, but Hughes is looking for improvement from his side after finishing ninth in the Premier League last season.
“In terms of what we produced today, we need to be a lot better,” Hughes told Sky Sports.
“We’re not where we were at the end of last season. I can understand that to a certain extent, but we need to get up to speed quickly.”
Hull were reduced to 10 men on 14 minutes when James Chester brought down Glenn Whelan and Hughes conceded the red card may have worked against Stoke.
He added: “I’ve not seen it again, but at the time it looked a clear goalscoring chance, a straight run on goal, and he was taken out of the game.
“I could understand why it was a red card, but maybe that was to our detriment as well. Maybe we thought it was going to be easy or a matter of time before scoring a goal. That wasn’t the case.”
Hull were upset that Stoke were awarded a throw-in, which eventually led to the equaliser, and Hughes was happy to accept the decision, especially as referee Jon Moss took time to award the goal when Shawcross’ effort crept over the line.
“I’m not aware of that,” said Hughes regarding the throw-in incident. “I’ll have to look again at that.
“The referee’s watch wasn’t working, I’m not sure if that’s correct or not, but thankfully the linesman gave the decision and we’re grateful for that.”
