Junior Tchamadeu scored his first goal for Stoke as they eased their relegation fears in the Sky Bet Championship with a 3-1 victory over QPR.
The Potters managed to put more daylight between themselves and the relegation zone, with four points now separating them from the bottom three thanks to their second straight home win.
Bae Jun-ho and the excellent Million Manhoef were on target either side of Tchamadeu’s strike to inflict upon the injury-depleted QPR their fifth defeat in six games, and in truth they went down tamely at the bet365 Stadium.
A long kick by QPR goalkeeper Paul Nardi led to the first glimpse at goal for either side after 11 minutes as Kader Dembele got in behind only to shoot tamely at Viktor Johansson.
Stoke almost had a lucky break in the 18th minute when a deflected cross by Manhoef looped over Nardi and hit the bar.
This began a bright spell from the Potters who quickly threatened again when Manhoef tricked his way past Lucas Andersen before his shot was kept out by Nardi.
The hosts then had their reward after 21 minutes when Manhoef’s pass put Tchamadeu in behind down the right and his low ball into the box was converted first time by Bae.
Stoke continued to control the game against their subdued visitors and deservedly doubled their lead in the 44th minute.
Bae’s cross from the left was met by Manhoef and although his effort was straight at Nardi, Tchamadeu was on hand to drill the follow-up into the bottom corner from the edge of the area to open his account for the Potters.
Three half-time changes from QPR had little effect as the home side went 3-0 up after 54 minutes when Manhoef ran onto Lewis Baker’s through ball, rounded Nardi and calmly rolled into an empty net.
It could have got even better for Stoke just after the hour mark when Eric Bocat’s pass put Manhoef through again, but Kenneth Paal got back to make a good last-ditch challenge.
It took Johansson straying from his area to tackle Alfie Lloyd to finally lead to a half-chance for QPR as Jack Colback’s lob from just inside the Stoke half landed on the roof of the net.
A better opportunity to pull one back quickly came the R’s way when Yang Min-hyeok’s cross was met by a header from Jimmy Dunner that went over the bar.
The visitors had belatedly got their act together and they were on the scoreboard after 78 minutes when Tottenham loanee Yang was able to turn outside the box before his low shot found the bottom corner for his first goal for the club.
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