diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker.go b/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker.go
index d5f2c6aadb9..cfff0ac8c38 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker.go
@@ -166,24 +166,19 @@ func matchImageTagOrSHA(inspected dockertypes.ImageInspect, image string) bool {
 		// No Tag or SHA specified, so just return what we have
 		return true
 	}
-	if isTagged {
-		hostname, _ := dockerref.SplitHostname(named)
-		// Check the RepoTags for an exact match
-		for _, tag := range inspected.RepoTags {
-			// Deal with image with hostname specified
-			if len(hostname) > 0 {
-				if strings.HasSuffix(image, tag) {
-					return true
-				}
 
-			} else {
-				if tag == image {
-					// We found a specific tag that we were looking for
-					return true
-				}
+	if isTagged {
+		// Check the RepoTags for a match.
+		for _, tag := range inspected.RepoTags {
+			// An image name (without the tag/digest) can be [hostname '/'] component ['/' component]*
+			// Because either the RepoTag or the name *may* contain the
+			// hostname or not, we only check for the suffix match.
+			if strings.HasSuffix(image, tag) || strings.HasSuffix(tag, image) {
+				return true
 			}
 		}
 	}
+
 	if isDigested {
 		algo := digest.Digest().Algorithm().String()
 		sha := digest.Digest().Hex()
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker_test.go
index 411f5e3c195..2046cd279f5 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/dockertools/docker_test.go
@@ -183,6 +183,11 @@ func TestMatchImageTagOrSHA(t *testing.T) {
 			Image:     "docker.io/colemickens/hyperkube-amd64:217.9beff63",
 			Output:    true,
 		},
+		{
+			Inspected: dockertypes.ImageInspect{RepoTags: []string{"docker.io/kubernetes/pause:latest"}},
+			Image:     "kubernetes/pause:latest",
+			Output:    true,
+		},
 		{
 			Inspected: dockertypes.ImageInspect{
 				ID: "sha256:2208f7a29005d226d1ee33a63e33af1f47af6156c740d7d23c7948e8d282d53d",