Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has admitted that his side deserved their 2-0 defeat to Watford this afternoon.

The Hornets claimed three points thanks to goals from Troy Deeney and Almen Abdi, and Hughes accepts that his side were not at their best in the match.

"[We] didn't really deal with their threat up top," Hughes told BBC Sport. "Their two guys messed our centre halves around all day long.

"We need to be better than we were today. It's uncharacteristic of us to be as bad as we were today, but credit to Watford, I thought they worked exceptionally hard.

"On the day they were the better team, deserved the win, and we hold our hands up and we will be better than that. I think we all recognise that we're a much better team than we were able to show today."

Stoke will take on Chelsea in the League Cup on Tuesday evening.

Written by
Stephen Topping