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Dalglish reveals meeting with referees' chief Riley

Kenny Dalglish believes managers and referees should chat more after matches © PA Photos

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Kenny Dalglish has held clear the air talks with referees' chief Mike Riley following the Scot's recent outburst against Premier League officials, with the Liverpool boss advocating the idea of more regular discussions between managers and referees.

After taking seven points from their opening three league fixtures, Liverpool suffered a 1-0 defeat at Stoke on Saturday. In his press conference following the match, Dalglish voiced his concerns over the officiating at the Britannia Stadium, with the Scot making reference to two penalty claims Liverpool had turned down and the crucial spot-kick awarded to Stoke - which Jon Walters scored from - by Mark Clattenburg.

Dalglish claimed there had been unsatisfactory decisions made in all four of the Reds' league encounters and he would be liaising with the club's owners to discuss taking his concerns further, by making a formal complaint.

However, after meeting with Riley, general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Ltd, at the club's Melwood training facilities, Dalglish revealed a more positive outlook.

"It was good to see Mike and we had an extremely informative and amicable discussion, which has given us all a better understanding of how things operate," Dalglish said. "It's our job to best represent the club and protect its interests. But we have the utmost respect for the job referees do and have never wanted or asked for any form of preferential treatment, simply a level playing field for everyone.

"We will continue to conduct ourselves in a dignified and respectful manner at all times. From our perspective it was certainly worthwhile sitting down together and maybe it's something that should happen more often."

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