Neil Warnock has criticised Stoke for "time-wasting from the start" in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace in a jibe at old foe Mark Hughes.
Warnock was left frustrated Palace failed to claim victory in a disappointing Premier League draw, with Peter Crouch's tap-in quickly cancelling out James McArthur's first Eagles goal.
Palace manager Warnock conceded in midweek that relations remain frosty with Hughes following a feud that developed in April 2013.
The former Sheffield United boss believes Palace should have coped better with Stoke's "set way," as their patchy form stretched to just one win in 10 games.
"It was probably a war of attrition," said Warnock. "It's difficult when you get teams who have that set way and who are time-wasting from the start, and you've got to cope with that.
"The problem we had was we didn't keep the lead for long enough. You've seen how many efforts and shots on goal we had and we had to keep the lead longer than we did, that was our biggest problem.
"We were attacking trying to get the second goal, we were in a good position, and we shouldn't get caught on the counter like that.
"That was the only blip for me defensive-wise: I thought we coped quite well with whatever else they had to throw at us."
Hughes succeeded Warnock at QPR in January 2012, but lasted less than a year at Loftus Road.
The former Manchester United striker was then linked with replacing Warnock for a second time, at Leeds in April 2013.
That prompted Warnock to proclaim he hoped Hughes "destroys another team of mine": the Welshman was never appointed, but the feud was still set.
The pair shook hands ahead of Saturday's kickoff, but did not look at each other.
Meanwhile, Warnock expects Marouane Chamakh to miss "a couple of weeks" with a thigh problem after picking up an injury on Saturday, but the Morocco striker will head for scans on Monday.