Joey Barton demands Queens Park Rangers improvement

Joey Barton has urged his Queens Park Rangers teammates to put Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Stoke City behind them and focus on avoiding relegation.

Karl Henry's error led to Jonathan Walters opening the scoring with his first of three goals at the Britannia Stadium yesterday.

Niko Kranjcar had reduced the arrears and, despite dominating for large spells in the second half, Harry Redknapp's side conceded late on as Walters completed his hat-trick.

The result saw QPR stay 19th in the table, one point adrift of safety, and Barton warns that relegation is on the cards unless they eradicate mistakes.

"You know what Stoke are all about on a cold, windy day," he told reporters.

"And you make a difficult task almost impossible when you give away the goals we did. But we've got to pick up ourselves and go again."

It was Rangers' 11th successive Premier League defeat away from home - a record only worsened by Liverpool's run of 13 some 61 years ago.