BLACKBURN ROVERS boss Mark Hughes laid into referee Dermot Gallagher and his two assistants following Saturday's 3-1 defeat at home to Newcastle United.

Hughes felt Gallagher was wrong to send off Stephane Henchoz for his first half foul on United striker Obafemi Martins.

And he also argued Newcastle's second goal, which was scored by Stephen Taylor, should never have counted because the defender was in an offside position in the move leading up to it.

Talking about the sending off, the Rovers chief said: "My initial thought was at worst it's a foul.

"Stephane won the initial header and as he came down he landed on the back of the Newcastle player's legs and brought him down.

"You could argue it was a foul, but it certainly wasn't a sending off offence.

"It wasn't a clear goalscoring opportunity because he was 40-odd yards away from goal and the ball was running towards Brad Friedel as well.

"So in my view, there was no way it was a sending off.

"I also thought the first goal was offside but I stand to be corrected because I haven't seen it again.

"But certainly the second one was offside. Stephen Taylor was standing in an offside position when the ball was pulled across, it then broke to him and he scored the goal.

"I had Keith Hackett in for two hours on Thursday trying to explain this first phase and second phase rule for me and if I'm right then he was offside. But there you go."

It's not the first time Hughes has vented his anger on the match officials this season.

When Tugay was recently sent off in the 1-1 draw with Tottenham, the Rovers boss said referee Phil Dowd had had a shocker', a comment which he has since been asked to explain to the FA.

"We're not going to make excuses, but there's been big decisions that haven't gone for us, which have had a direct outcome on the game and it happened again today, so I don't know when it's going to stop," said Hughes.

"At the moment, big decisions are going against us, we're struggling a little bit with the guys that we have out, but we'll keep going.

"The qualities that we showed in the second half will remain with the group that we have, and that will be enough, I'm sure."