Football
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Mark Hughes targeting quick recovery from Stoke slump

Mark Hughes has warned Stoke City's under-performing players they risk ruining their season if they allow their poor run to continue.

Sunday's 4-1 defeat at Crystal Palace was their fourth loss in five Premier League fixtures and left them with a total of one point, three goals scored and 14 conceded.

Hughes had targeted an improvement on the ninth-placed finishes they have secured for the past three years, but is concerned doing so will soon prove beyond them.

"We have ambitions this season and, if this run continues any longer, we won't be able to achieve them," Hughes said. "We need to turn this round very quickly. We haven't really got going yet.

"We've been ninth in the Premier League in the last three years, and we spoke about being better than that. We're giving ourselves too much to do. Confidence is damaged after the last few results, and you can see that in some of the players' play. A number of them are lacking form.

"Collectively we need to be better. We can't keep conceding easy goals like the first two."

The absence of injured goalkeeper Jack Butland has contributed much to the uncertainty seen in the defence playing in front of Shay Given, something Hughes is aware of.

"Jack's a loss for us, something we were not expecting. Last year it hurt us [when he was injured]. We go with what we've got, and we have to be better. We have an opportunity on Wednesday [against Hull] and Saturday [against West Brom] to turn things round very quickly."

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