Hughes: The sending off changed the game

MARK HUGHES obviously blamed the sending off of Tugay as the reason Rovers slumped to a heavy defeat at the hands of Middlesbrough.

Things were nicely poised until Tugay's two yellows changed the game, combined with the affect of having a lot of players away on international duty and a couple of players coming back from injury eventually took their told.

"Obviously the sending off has completely changed the game for us," said Hughes after the game.

"Basically it was the worst case scenario, we've had a lot of players away on international duty and others coming back from injury, so that made an impact later on in the game.

"We came out in the second half and got undone, we didn't defend properly. That is what was disappointing, you can't come back when you are down to ten men.

"The sending off has affected the outcome of the game, but fair play to the lads, they stuck at it, they still tried to get forward when they could.

"We just ran out of legs towards the end.

"But there's no time to feel sorry for ourselves, we'll make sure we are in better shape next week."

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