Baggies boss wants refs respect

Mowbray broke his silence on Tuesday's Rob Styles controversy at the Hawthorns, after Paul Robinson's red card against Manchester United was overturned by the FA.

The Baggies manager believes the FA's ongoing 'Respect the Referee' campaign must work both ways.

He said: "I like referees who have a bit of respect for the players. We talk about 'Respect the Referee' but I like it to work both ways. The best referees can communicate with the players. We have a few in the league who can do that- but there is a few who are not so good at it.

"They are on the periphery of the industry and some of them find it difficult to work with superstar footballers. They are not sure how to handle the personalities and it is almost like a falseness comes over them.

"Sometimes they are in awe of players and at other times they are too 'in your face' and aggressive towards them. There are too many who don't manage the football match. There are too many times when the game seems too big for them."

An FA disciplinary panel took less than an hour to overturn Mr Styles' decision to dismiss Robinson for a foul on United's Park Ji-Sung.

The tough-tackling left-back will now be available for the trip to Hull and next week's meetings with Burnley and Newcastle, after initially being banned for the games.

The FA decision reopened the debate over Hampshire official Style's performance on Tuesday, which was derided by spectators.

Mowbray added: "It is almost as if some referees want to be the friend of the stars. It is 'Frank this' and 'Frank that', and yet he doesn't know the names of any of our players, so it is too easy to brandish a card.

"I thought Mr Styles had a difficult night on Tuesday."