Hughes and Jol dismiss confrontation

Queens Park Rangers manager Mark Hughes played down a touchline spat with his Fulham counterpart Martin Jol on Saturday.

Fulham ran out 1-0 winners from their trip to Loftus Road in the English Premier League, and there appeared to be a minor flashpoint between the two coaches at the final whistle.

Hughes attempted to dismiss the incident, and said he was trying to avoid a ‘patronising’ tap on the head from Dutchman Jol.

“I offered my hand and he shook it readily,” Hughes said.

“I congratulated him on a good performance by his team. They won the game and I don’t have a problem with that.”

“I took exception because I thought he was going to tap me on the head, which I deemed to be slightly patronising so I brushed his arm away. That is all it was. No big deal.”

After seeing his team grab all three points thanks to Pavel Pogrebnyak’s goal, Jol supported the explanation offered by his Fulham predecessor.

“We shook hands but maybe I made it a bit too personal, you know? I tried to grab his shoulder and he didn’t like that because he is a tough guy,” Jol said.

“He is a winner, he wants to win. Maybe he doesn’t like me, I don’t know.”

QPR lost debutant Samba Diakite to a red card in the 33rd minute, the third time in their last four home matches they have had a man sent off.

“I don’t think the discipline was bad,” Hughes said.

“Obviously it was his debut and he (Diakite) wanted to make an impression.”

“He was enthusiastic but I don’t think he was reckless. He mistimed challenges and unfortunately for him he doesn’t know the league as of yet.”

“In fairness, I take responsibility for that as in the ideal world you want to introduce him to the Premier League a bit more slowly. But given our circumstances we need good players on the pitch and I think up to the point of his sending off I thought he was excellent and arguably our best player.”

“Obviously we need to keep the full complement of players on the pitch because if we don’t it will be difficult for us.”

“We haven’t managed that in our last two home games so it is pretty clear where our real problem lies.”