SIZE OF HIS TASK
Jones will need many qualities to see this job through and a sense of humour will be among them judging by the way his players contrived to concede their first during that fraught opening slap bang in front of Stoke’s travelling support.
A left-wing corner was headed goalwards for Benik Afobe to clear at the near post, but he smashed said clearance straight into a team-mate and saw the ball whistle past him with interest for 1-0.
It wasn’t immediately obvious which hapless teammate it had struck, but the sight of Ryan Shawcross lying face down in the mud gave us a useful clue.
The captain has witnessed many a mishap over that aforementioned three years, but few as physically and emotionally painful as that one.
Brentford were driving at Stoke with alarming regularity and unremitting speed, it seemed, and before the 10th minute was up Jack Butland brilliantly turned Neil Maupay’s low shot round his left-hand post.
But it was 2-0 by the 17th minute when Brentford’s one-touch movement of the ball left Stoke chasing shadows as the ball was worked inside by Romain Sawyers for Said Benrahama to sweep across Butland’s low dive to his right.
Had it ever become 3-0 well, let’s not even go there - but thank heavens it was Stoke who scored next, just six minutes later, and the manner of the goal fair took your breath away.
Afobe, an unwilling symbol of Stoke’s recent collapse in form, would have gladly taken a goal off his backside, so imagine his glee when racing onto Tom Ince’s short pass to belt a 20-yard beauty into the goalkeeper’s top lefthand corner at a blistering rate of knots.
His goal was not the prelude to any kind of comeback, however, and Stoke’s first-half susceptibility continued unabated as an Ashley Williams challenge prevented an almost certain third before his new manager could draw breath and alter things at half-time.
Etebo’s appearance and Ince’s shift from the centre to the right were chief among those half-time changes, but once again Brentford remained comfortably the better of the two teams.
So there was no disputing their claims on a third goal when Rico Henry entered the heat from deep and ran by an exposed Shawcross before lashing low past Butland for 3-1.
Stoke couldn’t have complained too loudly had the scoreline deteriorated further, given the balance of play, as Ollie Watkins centred for Maupay to clip the bar before Watkins lashed an effort of his own across Butland and against the same woodwork.
The two teams were playing the game at a different speed and it’s not over stretching it to say Stoke’s work for much of that second half was little more than damage limitation because they sure as heck never threatened to score a second.
You could even argue Stoke were worse than in the latter days of Gary Rowett because they had less possession and so less control of the game.
However, this is the start of a transitional period which could look and feel like an ill-fitting suit for a while as Jones imposes his personality and strategy upon a team bearing the scars and upheaval of three managerial exits in the space of just 12 months.
A club priding itself on admirable stability for so many years is now enduring a period of considerable instability and all must hold tight for better times ahead.