Stoke City 2 Crystal Palace 1: match report Full-backs push up a lot higher now and there is more fluidity in central areas. Midfielders are allowed to attack and the team is not quite as rigid. Yet the personnel remain more of less the same. Only one of Hughes" new signings featured here and that was Erik Pieters, who is Dutch, powerfully built and one of the full-backs asked to push on. Some of Stoke's play can be quite fluent in the final third, but there are problems at the back. The two centre-halves are defenders and only that and Palace's opening goal probably wouldn't have happened under Pulis. There was a long clearance by Dean Moxey, Shawcross chased after it into the right-hand defensive channel. The danger merited a clearance into Row Z but he allowed Chamakh to steal possession. The Moroccan displayed remarkable poise to evade the presence of Robert Huth before sliding the ball underneath Asmir Begovic. Stoke responded immediately with Crouch hitting the crossbar. Hughes said: "Premier League points are like gold dust and this was important for us."