Hughton: Chamakh deserved a red card

Hughton's side took the lead in the 39th minute as Bradley Johnson produced an impressive finish from the edge of the area after Gary Hooper's cutback, and the visitors should have been given a numerical advantage soon after.

Wes Hoolahan fouled Chamakh on Palace's left wing and the Moroccan reacted angrily, forcefully pushing the Irishman in the face to earn a yellow card, with the hosts winning a penalty from the subsequent free-kick.

Hughton, whose side conceded the equaliser from that spot-kick, was adamant that the former Arsenal man should have been given a red card for his actions, highlighting that it is usually a sending-off offence to raise your hand to another player's face.

He said: "I don't have any arguments with the decisions against us, but certainly Chamakh should have been off the pitch.

"The referee had a very good view of it and the letter of the law, as far as I know it, if you raise your hand to someone's face then it is a sending-off offence.

"Credit to Wes Hoolahan, he didn't try to get the lad sent off. He got straight back up again, so it's not as if we have Wes making a meal of anything.

"It was certainly a sending-off offence."

On the match itself, Hughton felt the wet conditions had an adverse effect on proceedings and was particularly disappointed that his team were not able to at least hold their lead until half-time.

He added: "A tough game and a tough day. The conditions did not help, but I felt that if there was any team going to create something in the first half then it would be us.

"But you want to go in to the break 1-0 up as opposed to them clawing one back right before, so that was disappointing.

"It was end-to-end in the second half and considering the problems we had, a draw was probably fair."

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