Wigan manager Steve Bruce has called for clarity in the Football Association's clampdown on dangerous tackling.The Latics boss is without midfielder Jason Koumas for Saturday's trip to Blackburn after he was sent off five minutes into last week's relegation clash with Bolton, although Wigan went on to claim a valuable 1-0 win.

Chelsea's Ashley Cole, meanwhile, was only booked for a similar one-footed lunge on Tottenham's Alan Hutton on Wednesday.

Although Bruce agrees with the hard-line stance that has been adopted following the horrific leg break suffered by Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva, he believes there must be new directives to determine what exactly constitutes a dangerous tackle.

"I felt for Jason because I think the referees need clarity," he said. "We saw the challenge on Wednesday night by Ashley Cole that got a yellow card and, for me, that was a worse challenge than Jason's.

"It's these grey areas of what is a red card and what is a yellow card that I think we need clarity on.

"If you're going to go to ground in a challenge like that and miss the ball, is it a red card?

"The referee's report said that the player (Koumas) showed his studs, but if you go into a sliding tackle trying to win the ball, it's impossible not to show your studs, unless your foot's on the wrong way.

"Because of what happened to Eduardo, it's put the spotlight more and more onto that type of challenge, and it is one of those difficult ones, a bit like the offside rule."

Despite losing Koumas to an early dismissal against Bolton, Wigan managed to stretch their unbeaten run to four matches and open up a six-point gap between themselves and the bottom three.

Bruce got his first win after taking charge of Wigan against Blackburn - a 5-3 victory at the JJB Stadium in December - and the Latics boss hopes his side can maintain their recent revival against their Lancashire rivals.

"The form is good and I've been delighted with the way we've played, especially last week," he said.

"To win a game in the Premier League with 10 men for practically the whole of the game was a fantastic achievement.

"We're inching towards that safety barrier and let's hope we can go and produce another performance like we did a few weeks ago (against Blackburn) and get a similar result.

"I'm looking forward to going to Ewood Park again, it's always a decent atmosphere, and we'll see what it brings up this time."

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