Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has said that his team lacked a cutting edge in front of goal during their 1-0 defeat against Crystal Palace.
Jason Puncheon scored the only goal of the game to leave Stoke without a win in their past five Premier League matches, and Hughes admits that conceding the first goal proved crucial to the outcome.
"We huffed and puffed a bit and tried to force the issue but made it difficult for ourselves by conceding a poor goal," BBC Sport quotes him as saying. "That's been the case of late and it's something we need to take out of our game.
"Once they got the first goal, in a game that lacked quality, that was going to be key to winning the game and Palace were able to get that through poor defending.
"We need to nip that in the bud and we gave them a helping hand. They were able to get people behind the ball and we didn't have the guile or purpose to create the chances."
Stoke City are currently 13th in the Premier League table and sit just four points above the relegation zone.
Alex Meyers
