Hughes: We need to grow up a bit

As Stoke City travel down south for the Premier League fixture at Fulham, it means the inevitable post-match handshake between Mark Hughes and Tony Pulis could be little more than a snub, but perhaps not quite a hand gesture.

Fulham boss Mark Hughes refused to shake hands with Pulis, despite Tony`s efforts to offer commiserations, after the Potters thumped Fulham out of the League Cup with a 2-0 victory in September. It was reported that the reason for the snub was because of his supposed upset over Andy Wilkinson`s challenge on Moussa Dembele.

Although it was the season of good will, Tony was teed-off with Sparky and so returned the favour when Stoke were beaten 2-0 by the Londoners during the Christmas period.

However, Mark Hughes is hoping to bury the hatchet and shake hands with fellow Welshman Tony Pulis, whatever the result at Craven Cottage today.

Hughes hopes he and Pulis can ‘grow up’ and put the past behind them.

He said: ‘I probably got a little bit emotional and showed it in the wrong way. And maybe Tony showed his displeasure at being beaten at home in the wrong way so we need to grow probably.”

‘It was blown out of proportion, it was tit for tat.”

“I have no idea if my handshake will be accepted, I hope so. We are both Welsh lads, there is no reason why not.”

Well in my opinion, whether you`ve lost 1-0 or 2-0 or even 51-0, the courteous thing to do is to offer a hand to the opposing manager. It doesn`t cost anything, unlike most things in the world of football.

Pulis was peeved at the snub, and so snubbed him back when Sparky came to Stoke. I would have done the same, in fact I may of shook hands with all of the Fulham coaches and missed out Hughes, but maybe that`s a little far.

However if Hughes calls this public mentioning of the snubs an apology, then there`s no reason for Pulis to continue making the ‘tit for tat` malarkey a tit out of that old Sparky.