Blackburn Rovers Football Club News

• Nickname:Rovers
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Steve Kean

• Ground:Ewood Park
• Capacity:31,367

Hughes hails 'brave' official

28 Dec 2007 - 07:25:36

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Blackburn Rovers boss Mark Hughes praised the bravery of the assistant-referee who over-ruled his own offside decision to award their equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

Assistant Darren Cann initially flagged for offside as Roque Santa Cruz headed home an 84th minute equaliser in Thursday's clash at the City of Manchester Stadium.

David Dunn was standing in an offside position when he moved to meet David Bentley's near post cross, but his failure to make contact with the ball led Cann to over-rule his own offside flag following consultation with referee Howard Webb.

Santa Cruz had also drawn Rovers level in the first half of an entertaining game, which saw City lose their 100 per cent home start to their Premier League campaign.

"The flag went up very early and when you see that you expect the goal to be chalked off," admitted Hughes.

"In fairness to the assistant, he was strong enough and brave enough to admit that he had made a mistake.

"We are grateful for that, although it was the right decision.

"Sometimes, it is very difficult to know the difference between black and white.

"We have had examples in the past where we have felt hard done by, where decisions relating to phase one and phase two have gone against us.

"But if the referee explains it, I think most people would say it was the correct decision."