Wagner and Hughes lament penalty decisions in Huddersfield-Stoke stalemate

An entertaining contest might have produced a winner if referee Anthony Taylor had pointed to the spot at either end in the second period.

Taylor was unmoved as Potters midfielder Joe Allen, trying to fend off Aaron Mooy, went to ground and upended the Australian before reaching the ball, and the referee was also uninterested shortly after when Terriers defender Christopher Schindler appeared to trip Mame Diouf.

Hughes felt both decisions should have gone Stoke's way, with Wagner arguing Taylor was wrong in each instance during a contest where Tom Ince's first Premier League goal since February 2014 was cancelled out by Ramadan Sobhi's second in four days.

"We feel a little bit aggrieved because it was a clear penalty on Mame Diouf," Hughes claimed.

"He got his legs taken from him, the referee needs to give it. Whether or not he was influenced because the home crowd seemed to think it was a foul by Allen on Mooy...but I don't think he was ever in good possession of the ball and Joe's just shepherded the ball away from danger.

"Whether that's influenced the referee, you'd have to ask him. It's another key moment that has gone against us, we've had a number of them in recent weeks."

When Hughes' view on the Allen incident was put to Wagner, he replied: "This is a big surprise for me because he is long enough in the football business to judge this situation usually right so maybe after he has seen the video footage he will correct this opinion.

"We for sure have to get the penalty in this one situation. It was a clear penalty when it was 1-1.

"I haven't seen the Stoke situation on video but I have seen it from my standpoint and I thought this is a penalty maybe as well. We have seen two situations where maybe two penalties (should) be given."

The pressure on Hughes had eased after Saturday's pivotal victory over West Brom, yet within 10 minutes they were behind to Huddersfield as Ince, whose last Premier League goal came with Crystal Palace, scored with his 45th shot in the division this term.

It was the 41st Premier League goal Stoke had conceded but it was to be the last of the day as Ramadan came off the bench to turn home Allen's cross in the second half.

Having lost Ryan Shawcross to injury, and seen Huddersfield clear four efforts off their line in a mad 20-second spell which featured a tremendous save from Jonas Lossl, the visitors dug deep and did not unravel as they had done on previous occasions.

"Everybody's putting timelines on me and asking questions of the group of players I've got; (but) we've been stretched defensively and referees' decisions I've talked about," Hughes added.

"In recent weeks we haven't done too badly. We had a terrible 45 minutes against Spurs at Wembley and we lost 5-1. We got a little bit of criticism from that and maybe we lost a little confidence in what we were doing.

"We've picked ourselves up and gone again. I'm really pleased with where we are at the moment."