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Mark Hughes

STOKE-ON-TRENT. — Stoke manager Mark Hughes accused Jose Mourinho of sour grapes for refusing his post-match handshake after Manchester United’s winning run ended in the English Premiership on Saturday night.

Hughes told Mourinho to “f*** off” after shoving the Manchester United manager during a touchline row.

The bust-up happened when Stoke manager Hughes got annoyed at Mourinho entering his technical area when they squabbled over a foul. And sources say Hughes then encouraged referee Neil Swarbrick to send the United boss to the Bet365 Stands.

The spat so angered Mourinho that he made a point of shaking the hand of every member of the Stoke staff except Hughes at the final whistle. United dropped English Premier League points for the first time this season as Maxim Choupo-Moting capitalised on errors from Eric Bailly and Phil Jones to net twice either side of efforts from Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku.

Mourinho was dismissive of what he perceived to be defensive tactics from the Potters in the 2-2 draw – a claim Hughes refuted – and at one point during the game the Portuguese was pushed by his counterpart when he entered his technical area.

There was then no handshake after the final whistle, a custom Hughes has previously been snubbed for by Tony Pulis and Arsene Wenger, and the Potters boss accused Mourinho of taking the result poorly.

“I pushed him because he was in my technical area,” Hughes said. “Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to shake my hand. Maybe it’s because it has to be viewed as a negative result for him, coming to Stoke when everybody expected them to beat us.

“It’s a negative. Sometimes managers of top-six clubs don’t take negative results too kindly. Sometimes, because they’re not used to having to take negative results, sometimes they react in the wrong way. Maybe he reacted in the wrong way. “In fairness, I’ve got history with non-handshakes so maybe it’s me! Who knows?”

Mourinho brushed aside the issue in his post-match press conference, though he was keen to stress he was not in the wrong when asked before his press conference. “I prefer not to answer the question about handshakes – it’s a bad question,” he said. “It makes it look like it’s my fault but that’s not right.”

Mourinho said a draw against Stoke was a “fair result”, even though he claimed only one team wanted to win. United enjoyed the bulk of possession and had more opportunities yet it was far from one-way traffic. “I think it probably is a fair result,” said Mourinho.

“One team wanted to win, another team wanted to draw. They defended a lot and it is becoming quite trendy in the Premier League, this way of defending now, but they did well and physically they were very strong and they probably deserved the point.”

Unsurprisingly, Hughes, who has secured home wins over Manchester City, Liverpool, United and Arsenal in his time in charge of Stoke, saw it differently.

“I thought we went toe to toe with them,” he said. “You can mention the amount of finance they can throw at their team but it is what it is, we know that. Some teams have more resources than others and it’s how you use them. — Sky Sports