Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has conceded that the Potters' result against Liverpool this afternoon "could have become embarrassing".

Liverpool cruised to a 4-1 win at Anfield to leapfrog Hughes's side in the table, and the Welshman was not happy with the visitors' performance.

"It's one of those days," Hughes told BBC Sport. "When we needed to deal with things at source, we didn't deal with that. That's unlike us, we're normally very resolute.

"Once goals go in, it becomes difficult. It could have become embarrassing for us. It was damage limitation in the end.

"Today's result has hurt us obviously. We allowed Liverpool to go above us and teams around us are picking up points. But when we have a setback, we almost always bounce back, and we need to do that."

Stoke have dropped to ninth with defeat and remain three points behind Southampton in seventh.

Written by
Pascal Lemesre