Stoke City put in a good performance against Ronald Koeman's Southampton side away at St Mary's which saw the Potters run out on top to collect all three points in an impressive display, winning by a goal to nil.

Bojan shows his quality

Mark Hughes was "delighted" with his sides performance at the weekend, labelling it an "important win". Stoke's "good performance" saw them break with "real purpose" and consistently trouble Southampton's backline until the final whistle. 

​After their recent 1-0 victory over Southampon, Stoke have moved into the top half of the Premier League, with only one point seperating them from 5th place.

Their early goal first half goal, struck brilliantly by Bojan from a searching Erik Peters cross, was the only goal scored in the game, but proved decisive as Southampton could not respond as Stoke piled on the pressure.

Mark Hughes said that the goal showed the Spaniard's "high technical ability" as he put the ball in the back of the net to claim his third goal in the league this season. 

The threat posed by Stokes attacking trio of Bojan, Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri was constantly penetrating Southamptons defense, having acclumulated nine shots between them. 

Hughes was also rather pleased with Afellay's performance. After replacing Shaqiri in the 65th minute, the Dutch international was impressive on the ball and came close to scoring during the latter stages of the second half. 

Team effort

Hughes was pleased with the "team effort" that his team put in, labelling them as "rock solid defensively" which saw the Potters recall their fourth successive clean shirt for the first time since 1970. 

Despite Southampton having fifteen shots, Hughes was pleased to see his team keep the opposition "at arms length" as Southampton were restricted to only one shot on target during the entire match. 

However Hughes only criticism was their failure to add to Bojan's early first half finish as the "quality of the chances" Stoke created should have seen them "win the game more comfortably". 

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