Crowd sensed Stoke fightback, says Hughes

Stoke boss Mark Hughes said he believed the frustrated Stamford Bridge crowd sensed his team would equalise against Chelsea.

Mame Biram Diouf’s late goal clinched a point for the visitors after Bertrand Traore had opened the scoring in the first half.

“As the second half progressed there was a feeling around the stadium that we were the team likely to get the next goal,” former Chelsea forward Hughes said after the 1-1 draw.

“We deserved a point and actually felt hard done by because in the first half we created two or three really good opportunities which we didn’t convert and then we got done with the sucker punch against the run of play.

“When that happens you can be deflated, but in fairness we had completely the opposite reaction. Everyone was encouraged by what we’d produced in the first half and said to carry on doing what we’d been doing.”