Hughes in hot water over Bellamy red card comments

The Football Association on Tuesday added to the headaches faced by Mark Hughes by asking the Manchester City boss to explain his reaction to Craig Bellamy’s sending-off at the weekend.

Bellamy was dismissed after receiving a second yellow card in the second half of a 3-3 draw against struggling Bolton.

The first was awarded for dissent, the second for what referee Mark Clattenburg saw as a dive — mistakenly, television replays suggested.

Hughes later claimed that Clattenburg had made inappropriate remarks at half-time.

“I don’t appreciate when the referees coming out for the second half start making comment about who they do or do not like in my team,” Hughes said after the match.

“They might be having a laugh and a joke. I have to be careful here as we are talking about integrity.”

Hughes, who has until December 22 to respond to the FA’s request, said he stood by what he said.

“I said what I said on Saturday is still on record and I stand by it,” he said. “The FA have asked for my version of events so I can’t really discuss the matter any further.”

Bellamy will miss Wednesday’s trip to Tottenham as a result of the ban triggered automatically by the red card while Shaun Wright-Phillips is ruled out by an ankle injury.

Nigel de Jong has however recovered from swine flu and the Dutch midfielder is expected to feature at White Hart Lane as City confront one of their rivals for a top four finish and a place in next season’s Champions League.

City go into the match unbeaten in 13 games in all competitions but having drawn eight of their last nine league matches — a run which has revived speculation that Hughes’s position could be vulnerable at the end of the season.

Tottenham’s own credentials as top four contenders took a knock when they went down to a 1-0 home defeat by Wolves on Sunday in a match marred by an altercation between a Spurs supporter and defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

Assou-Ekotto confronted the supporter next to the tunnel as he left the pitch and had to be pulled away by Spurs assistant boss Joe Jordan.

Manager Harry Redknapp confirmed Tuesday that Assou-Ekotto will meet the fan and that he would not be fining the Cameroon international.

“There won’t be any punishment,” said Redknapp. “Joe was there and he said it was nothing. This guy came over, he was foreign. He said something to Benoit and Benoit reacted to it.

“Whatever he said, that was it and there was no violence or anything. Joe pulled him away and his girlfriend pulled the other guy away, whoever he was.”

Midfielder Jermaine Jenas is doubtful for Spurs following a bout of food poisoning.

Redknapp confirmed that Luka Modric, who has not started a game since breaking his fibula in August, will be on the bench while Roman Pavlyuchenko and David Bentley are also in contention despite being left out of Saturday’s squad.