Mark Hughes calls for common sense from refs

Mark Hughes believes referees need to show greater consistency after Djibril Cisse was given a three-game ban for grabbing the throat of Wolves defender Roger Johnson last weekend.

Cisse, a £4million January signing, scored on his Queens Park Rangers debut at Aston Villa before his sending-off against Wolves and will miss tomorrow's clash at Blackburn. Rangers manager Hughes said: "I'm still aggrieved at the level of punishment for the 'crime' he did.

"We know he can't raise his hands but there was an incident in the Liverpool-Tottenham game where a player [Bale] jumped up and pushed someone [Agger] in the chest very forcefully, certainly more violent conduct than Djibril displayed - yet in the end he just gets a booking.

"What Djibril did is viewed as violent conduct but there are degrees of that and there should be a bit of understanding and common sense given the degree of violence.

"I'm not just highlighting Gareth Bale but it happens all the time. I've seen it many times where people jump up and push opponents away and that doesn't seem to be punished.

"But the fact that Djibril made a gesture to the neck of Johnson, that is deemed to be violent. It's all about degrees."