MARK Hughes said his 'devastated' Rovers players couldn't have given any more in their quest to reach the Carlng Cup final last night, writes NICK SMITH.

But the Rovers boss reckons referee Graham Poll could have done a lot more to help his side as Mancheser United came out 2-1 winners on the night, 3-2 on aggregate.

Hughes took a swipe at the 'celebrity status' that top officials are now gaining, claiming it's spoiling the game as a spectacle.

"We were frustrated sometimes with some of the decisions of the referee," said Hughes, whose team had a first half penalty given against them, which Brad Freidel saved from Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

"We are in a situation now where there are only so many Premier League referees and some of them are gaining celebrity status and that's dangeorus.

"You've got to remember that 61,000 people came to watch two teams play, not the performance of the ref.

"I was disappointed with the penalty decision. We had a claim later in the game, a stronger claim I felt, that wasn't given.

"Okay, it was a great save by Brad Friedel and that didn't cost us, but there were a number of decisions right through the game which led to frustration.

"There needed to be a balance between the amount of decisons we had and Manchester United had but in certain situations different decisions were given."

Friedel's penalty save kept the score at 1-1 after Steven Reid levelled an early strike by Van Nistelrooy.

Louis Saha struck the winner in the second half, but the fact that both goals were rather fortuitous only underlined to Hughes the extent to which they pushed United on their own patch.

"The group of boys in the dressing room are devastated they haven't got anything out of this game, but we'll pick ourselves up," said Hughes.

"We've come here and made a real good fist of it and I thought we were excellent from start to finish."