Hughes admits weakness in United clash

MARK Hughes admits Stoke City discussed Jamaal Lascelles’ threat from set pieces ahead of Newcastle United’s 2-1 victory over the Potters – but were still unable to prevent him scoring.

The Magpies’ captain scored United’s winning goal for the second successive match, combining with Matt Ritchie once more from a corner to power an unstoppable heading past Jack Butland.

Christian Atsu’s first-half opener had been cancelled out by Xherdan Shaqiri’s curling effort from outside the area -but Lascelles exploited the Potters’ zonalmarking system in the 68th minute to secure Newcastle’s third straight Premier League victory.

Hughes said: “When you play teams like Newcastle who show us respect we have to be a little bit better.

“It was a good ball in and the lad Lascelles has done well to get over the top of it.

“The lad has scored against Swansea and we talked about his threat. It was difficult to defend when they put it up there though.

“We had got back into the game. We could have got something out of it.”

Rob Elliot made a string of excellent saves for the home side, while Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Mame Biram Diouf missed good chances for the visitors.

Hughes believes Stoke deserved to return to Staffordshire with at least a point as a result, though Newcastle will likely point to Atsu’s penalty-that-wasn’t as well as Joselu’s hat-trick of glorious chances, to show that their three points were well earned.

Hughes added: “We did not play particularly well, not as good as we were in recent weeks.

“It was a different test – we came up against a team which allowed us a certain amount of possession.

“We played into Newcastle’s hands in terms of our loose passing.

“We were better in the second half. We had a real opportunity to take the game away from them.

“We still had two or three really good opportunities. We should have taken something out of the game.

“We controlled the game for the vast majority of the second half, they were just looking to break on us.

“We did not quite do our jobs at a corner and Jack was not able to save it. We will move on to the next one.

“We are a good side and we can knock it around but at key moments we have to be clinical.”