Stoke overcame a nervous and scrappy start in a first half so rubbish the game was stopped to collect a number of bin liners off the pitch.

Whilst I am naturally annoyed and frustrated at my team's defence being so leaky it puts the Titanic to shame, I'm not about to jump ship anytime soon. In fact, despite the result, I saw quite a few positives from the weekend, enough to give me heart enough that we can turn this slump around.

It speaks volumes about Stoke's away form when our latest opponents had lost their last five home games before we arrived and by the time we left had chalked up their biggest ever Premier League win.

On the night of Haloween you could have picked from any number of timely cliches, it certainly wasn't a thriller but it was every inch the horror show that many saw coming.