David Dunn duly scored from the resulting spot-kick and his debut goal proved to be the difference between the two sides come the final whistle.
"It was never a penalty," Hoddle said after the game.
"I don't think this referee should have been in charge of the game.
"He had a big problem with Birmingham in Malaysia and you could tell that he was affected by that. From the first minute I knew it would go against us.
"Savage has fouled our player. He's all over Tony. I've watched it again and I can't see a penalty.
"It's a poor, poor decision and the difference between us getting something out of the game and getting absolutely nil. That's hard to take."
"If we'd have got to half-time at 0-0 I think we would have won that game. It was a poor decision and it sticks in the throat."
What Hoddle didn't say was that his big defender had given away numerous free-kicks for the same tugging of the shirt offence on numerous occasions prior to the penalty decision - both Horsfield and Dugarry were lucky to still have the new top still on their backs come the 35th minute! For the penalty he just did it one too many times.
