The match started in open fashion and both sides had an early chance, first when Dusan Tadic's effort fell wide of the post with Jack Butland beaten, before Marko Arnautovic's shot was blocked and Bojan fired a weak effort straight at Maarten Stekelenburg.

After that frantic start it took just 10 minutes for the deadlock to be broken and it was the visitors who found the opener through former Barcelona forward Bojan, when he finished clinically at the near post after Erik Pieters's deflected cross had found its way through.

Bojan Krkic of Stoke City scores his team's first goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Southampton and Stoke City at St Mary's Stadium on November 21, 2015 © Getty Images

The goal did not do anything to alter the open flow of the match, and after both sides had threatened to break downfield quickly only a smart instinctive save from Stekelenburg to turn Xherdan Shaqiri's effort round the post prevented the hosts from falling further behind.

Jose Fonte should have done better for Southampton when he could only head over from six yards after he was found by Steven Davis's free kick, and Jonathan Walters shot wide from Bojan's cut-back as both teams continued to create chances as an end-to-end first half began to draw to a close.

Stoke should have doubled their lead just over a minute into the second half when Arnautovic found Shaqiri, but the Swiss midfielder sliced his finish well over from close range.

Tadic and Victor Wanyama came close with efforts from outside the box as Southampton pressed for an equaliser, and substitute Sadio Mane had a fine chance minutes after coming on when his low shot was kept out of the bottom corner by a diving Butland.

As the hosts pushed, however, they left themselves vulnerable to conceding a second, but Stoke were unable to take advantage as after Arnautovic had fired wide, Charlie Adam and Ibrahim Afellay also missed the target as they looked to kill the game off.

A fine fingertip save from Stekelenburg denied Afellay in a frantic finish but in the end Bojan's strike was all that separated the sides as the full-time whistle blew, to move Stoke up into the top half of the table.