Mark Hughes was miffed at the extent of Bournemouth's time wasting as the Potters were defeated 1-0 at the bet365 Stadium, with Nathan Aké's header proving to be the difference.
The defeat leaves Stoke only three points above the relegation zone in thirteenth position.
FULL-TIME Stoke 0-1 Bournemouth. Nathan Ake's first #PL goal of the season is enough to see Bournemouth move up to 9th #STKBOU pic.twitter.com/jWuvJ92aBx
"It was what it was," conceded Hughes toSky Sportsafter the game, 'but I don't think we deserved to lose the game. We didn't deserve to win, but surely on the shape of the game, in terms of the team looking to get on the front foot I thought we were the team more slightly (sic)."
"We were better towards the end of the first half, and in the second half we dominated the game without getting the reward for our efforts."
Joe Allen was forced to drop back in Stoke's formation due to Glenn Whelan's absence from the team. As a result, the Potters lacked a cutting edge going forward.
"A lot of our good play and intelligent play in recent weekshas come from Joe in those advancedareas, so Bojan's come in and he hasn't played for a number of weeks, but that's not why we were beat today. We were a little unfortunate in my view."
ï’¬#afcb boss Eddie Howe felt his side "thoroughly deserved" the hard fought 1-0 win over @StokeCity.
More âž¡ https://t.co/o8K3jAXa2k pic.twitter.com/dmkQTE3NAS
Bournemouth's time wasting came under questioning from Hughes, although Eddie Howe could respond by pointing out that his side should have had their own penalty to match Stoke's missed one.
"I'm a little bit frustrated with maybe a little bit of cynical time wasting from Bournemouth, we've all done it but maybe not to the extent that they did it today."