Saturday 1 April 2017 19:59, UK
Stoke City were off the pace in all aspects of their game in their 2-0 loss to Leicester City at the King Power on Saturday afternoon, according to manager Mark Hughes.
The Potters suffered a sixth defeat in their last eight away games in the Premier League and Hughes had no complaints about the result.
"Not a great day from our point of view, we found it difficult to gain a real foothold in the game, we were just a little bit off the pace," he said.
"Leicester were a little bit sharper to the ball, a little bit sharper to the second balls and things bouncing around in the middle of the park. And we found it difficult to gain any momentum to our own play."
Stoke fell behind to a stunning strike by Wilfred Ndidi midway through the first half and struggled thereafter to get back in the contest.
"We went behind in the game, unfortunately, and when you do that against Leicester, it plays into their hands," Hughes said. "They can play on the counterattack and they are a real threat on the break, as we know."
The match was over as a contest when Leicester striker Jamie Vardy doubled his side's lead with a well-struck volley two minutes into the second half.
"Clearly at half-time we very much felt we were in the game, we were only 1-0 down," said Hughes. "But we shot ourselves in the foot by conceding so early in the second half.
"And at 2-0 we made it really difficult for ourselves. We had more of the play second half, but that was more to do with Leicester just consolidating their position."
The visitors did have chances to reduce the deficit and make life uncomfortable for the Foxes, with substitute Peter Crouch spurning the best of those openings.
"In fairness to Crouchy, he knows he should have done better and he held his hands up," Hughes said.
The Welshman refuted suggestions his players were currently finding it hard to motivate themselves, with Stoke sitting ninth and seemingly having little to play for until the end of the season.
"It should not be difficult [to keep the momentum going], it is about having the mentality to keep going," said Hughes.
"And we have games ahead that will test us, but we will have to be better than we were today.
"So we will have to be better on Tuesday [at Burnley], a similar type of game we will face with lots of longer balls and physical challenges and we have to be ready for it."
