We didn't nip things in the bud...

Blackburn Rovers boss Mark Hughes gives his analysis of his side's fourth round FA Cup exit at the Boleyn...

Mark Hughes - Blackburn Rovers

Do referees have something against Khizanishvili? Well I’ve not seen the penalty but the reaction of my players suggests that it was a harsh decision. That’s two in a week so we’re disappointed in that. It was the perfect start from our point of view. A goal after 30 seconds and you think it’s going to be your day. On reflection the early goal probably galvanised West Ham. They responded well to going behind and got back into the game very quickly. Though we had a lot of the play I thought that, defensively, we weren’t at the level we usually are and in the end that cost us today.

This isn’t the place to single out players individually though. We review every game but I was more concerned with our general defending. We pride ourselves on our closing down but we didn’t really do that today.

We’ve had a really hard week – three really difficult away games. Our efforts in midweek seemed to take a bit of the edge off our game. When you play a side such as West Ham who are very accomplished, especially at home, you have to be at a level to play up to the ball to prevent them from forming attacks. They have some powerful players and our energy levels were down.

Yes it was a bit like the league game though defensively we didn’t give ourselves a chance. We didn’t nip things in the bud. Errors start to happen and that’s when you start conceding goals.