MARK Hughes is one of a rare breed of modern managers who normally refuses to point the finger of blame at referees in an attempt to cover up his side's own deficiencies.

However, there are occasions when even the Blackburn boss feels inclined to make the referee a scapegoat and at Anfield on Saturday he had every reason to be incensed by the performance of Mark Halsey.

The game was 32 minutes old when a misplaced pass from Michael Gray fell straight to Bolo Zenden, who was lurking with intent in the centre circle.

Liverpool's mercurial Dutchman then slipped a beautifully weighted pass through to Djibril Cisse, who was streaking through the inside right channel like the Euston express.

As Zurab Khizanishvili attempted to cut him off at the pass, the Georgian defender was a split second out with his timing and his outstretched leg sent Cisse tumbling into the area in a whirl of arms and legs.

Hialsey's initial instinct was to point to the penalty spot, only for his assistant to correctly signal that the offence had occurred outside the area.

Somewhere during the ensuing consultation process, it's also alleged that Halsey indicated Khizanishvili was likely to receive a yellow card for his misdemeanour.

Then, bizarrely, the man in black had a complete change of heart, deciding instead to award Liverpool a free kick and offer Khizanishvili first use of the bath soap.

Before Zurab's dismissal, there was little to choose between the two sides.

Liverpool looked anything but European champions and appeared to be there for the taking without the irrepressible Steven Gerrard to patrol the midfield.

Buoyed by back-to-back wins against Manchester United and West Brom, there was an entrepreneurial steak about Rovers during the opening exchanges.

Shefki Kuqi headed over and a slick move involving Lucas Neill and Paul Dickov led to a shooting chance for Robbie Savage that he put wide.

Liverpool's main threat came from set-pieces, but Cisse and Carragher both failed to apply the killer touch to excellent Xabi Alonso deliveries.

Inevitably, the sending off upset the equilibrium and from then on the Reds became more dominant.

Zenden struck the crossbar with the resulting free kick, and Cisse spurned two more golden opportunities as Alonso exploited Rovers' vulnerability to set-pieces.

The second half continued in a similar vein as Cisse wasted two further chances and Stephen Warnock had a penalty appeal turned down when he fell under a challenge from Tugay.

Rovers gave everything for the cause but their brave resistance was finally shattered in the 75th minute.

Savage conceded one foul too many on the edge of the area and the ball was cleverly shifted sideways to Cisse from the ensuing free kick, thus creating the perfect angle for the Frenchman to drill a low shot past Brad Friedel.

It was a sweet moment for Cisse, who suffered a double fracture of the leg in a Premiership fixture against Blackburn a year ago.

As Rovers went in pursuit of an equaliser, that inevitably left gaps which Fernando Morientes should have exploited on three occasions in the final 10 minutes.

But another goal then really would have been harsh on Rovers.