A disappointing day, but should Stoke have been playing against 10 men?

STOKE City were left kicking themselves after a frustrating 1-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers. Harvey Vale scored the game's only goal with a well-taken strike in the second half, but that wasn't the only story of the afternoon.

- Peter Smith

Here are the talking points from Loftus Road...

FINDING A WAY TO GET AROUND DISRUPTION

This was a stop-start, niggly, hard-fought game with perhaps more haste than thought at times.

Mark Robins suggested that QPR were keen to try to disrupt things, so it was put to him that was perhaps what West Brom had done too in Stoke's only other defeat of the season.

There is a buzz around the Championship that this is a decent Stoke side, so perhaps other sides will follow that example rather than try to match Stoke like Southampton or Birmingham.

Robins said: "I've been waxing lyrical about what I've seen, but then perhaps it's after the lord mayor's show almost.

"You say this is really good and I'm pleased with it, but then you get a performance which is below par.

"You've got to take into consideration the opponent and they've been on a decent run. That's three in a row they've won now.

"It's a blow to us. We haven't done the job as well as we have done in previous games, but if you don't do things right you're going to come unstuck.