MARK Hughes has hit back at Sir Alex Ferguson after the Manchester United boss angrily accused Blackburn Rovers of adopting bully-boy tactics during Wednesday night's fiery Premiership clash between the two sides at Ewood Park.

Ferguson was left fuming by what he perceived to be Rovers' overly physical approach during his side's 4-3 defeat, and he also accused Hughes' side of deliberately time wasting in an astonishing post-match rant.

The United chief, clearly rattled after seeing his side lose vital ground in the race for second place, complained bitterly that Rovers repeatedly fouled his players.

But Hughes has since responded by launching a vigorous defence of his team, and he even claimed Fergie only said what he did in a bid to deflect the criticism off his own players following another poor United performance.

The Rovers chief said: "After winning a game against Manchester United, we were all on high, but then I drove home and switched the telly on just before I went to bed, which is when I saw Sir Alex's comments and, to be fair, it took the edge off the evening from my point of view.

"I thought it was unwarranted and I'm not quite sure why he felt he had to make the comments he did.

"I didn't think it was a true reflection of the game that I participated in, and I think most people in the ground viewed the game in a totally different way.

"In his defence, I've been in similar situations where the emotion and events of the game sometimes cloud your judgement and, possibly, that's what has happened in this case.

"But I just felt it was unfortunate that, once again, I have to defend my team.

"Sir Alex commented that he couldn't defend it, but I never asked him to defend it, and he's never volunteered to.

"If anyone is to defend Blackburn Rovers then it will be me."

Ironically, Hughes and Ferguson had shared a post-match drink together following Rovers' thrilling victory and it was only later when the Welshman became aware of the United boss's stinging criticism.

"It just surprised me," admitted Hughes.

"The verdict of the vast majority of people who came to the ground was at odds with Sir Alex's view.

"The game itself had everything. It was end-to-end, it ebbed and flowed, there was a great atmosphere, everyone was fully engrossed in it, there were goals and incidents - it was a great advert for Premiership football.

"But, obviously, Sir Alex saw it in a different light.

"(I know) you have to defend your position and maybe he was trying to deflect a little bit of the attention away from the fact he had just lost a very important game and one of his guys had just been sent off, so he maybe felt that was going to hit the headlines.

"But I was just disappointed that he felt he had to bring some of our players into the mix to illustrate his point."

Rovers were labelled the bully boys' of the Premiership following a stormy encounter with Chelsea last season and that criticism only intensified when the club was involved in a stormy FA Cup semi-final with Arsenal last April.

However, Hughes and his players have since worked hard to shed that negative image but the Rovers boss now fears Fergie's criticism could reopen old wounds.

"Sometimes when people are talking about us, they refer to the clichs they've heard over the last few seasons and I think there was a little bit of that (on Wednesday)," said Hughes.

"We've worked really hard to change peoples' perception of us over the last 12 months and I think we've done that by playing great football, winning football matches, scoring goals and playing really well.

"So when high profile managers such as Sir Alex make comments that are a little bit hurtful, there's a feeling you're back to square one again.

"But we hope that's not the case."