Mark Hughes insists Stoke were dominant in Palace loss

Mark Hughes said a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace was harsh on his Stoke side, who he feels were "totally dominant".

Stoke deployed attacking trio Bojan, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic together in the hope of recreating their showing against Manchester City at the Britannia Stadium but were frustrated by Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey on three occasions.

They did find a breakthrough in response to Connor Wickham's penalty when Bojan scored from the spot in the second half but Palace went on to claim all three points when Lee Chung-Yong powered home a superb goal two minutes from time.

Hughes felt that outcome was not an accurate reflection of the match.

"I'm frustrated at the result but not with our performance," he said. "We were totally dominant and there's no way we should have lost that game in terms of general play. 

It drops to the lad on the edge of the box who will never hit a ball like that ever again, probably hasn't before either.

"I thought we played well today - we've played worse than that in the past and won games but that's sport. We had the setback of conceding a penalty on the stroke of half-time which was a major boost for them.

"They were able to come out in the second half and defend really well with lots of men behind the ball which they are very good at and they've always got the threat that the likes of Bolasie and Zaha give them. 

"But they didn't really have too many occasions when they were able to break with any purpose. We were the dominant side in the second half and, in my opinion, for most of the first half." 

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Hughes also felt Palace - who substituted Wickham, Jason Puncheon and Wilfried Zaha - would have been content with a draw in the final stages of the game, and that Lee's shot was a once-in-a-career moment.

"Towards the end of the game you're thinking Palace looked reasonably comfortable or happy with the point because they'd taken most of their more creative players out of the game," Hughes noted.

"But, lo and behold, they get one last corner and it drops to the lad on the edge of the box who will never hit a ball like that ever again, probably hasn't before either.

"That's what happens - it's sport, you have to dust yourself down and keep going. Confidence wise we're not affected because I thought we did okay today."