With Blackburn chasing the equaliser against Middlesbrough in the 1-1 draw at Ewood Park the visitors Jeremie Aliadiere went down under challenge from Ryan Nelsen right in front of the benches.

Frustrated Rovers boss Mark Hughes felt that the player was perhaps making the most of the situation and gently rolled the ball back into the prone player.

Almost immediately the Middlesbrough bench led by boss Gareth Southgate and assistant Colin Cooper leapt to their feet to confront Hughes and a brief war of words ensued with the fourth official trying to keep the rival benches apart.

Both parties played down the incident after the game with Hughes tacitly accepting his actions had brought the game to life and sparked some passion from the crowd.

"It wasn't premeditated but I grant it livened up the game which was no bad thing.

"I just felt at times that Middlesbrough where trying to run the clock down, which I've no real problem with as we all do it. I just felt the game needed some momentum to it as it was very stop-start.

"Maybe it helped.

"The fact of the matter is I saw a couple of ex-centre halves I used to do battle with and reverted to type!"

His counterpart was equally dismissive of the incident.

"I never used to front him like that when I played against him on the field!" claimed Southgate. "You know no one can hit you on the touchline."

"I think it's important I protect my players and Mark feels the same way about his players.

"We both want to win and there is no problem."