Everyone knows football is a cruel business.

But it is even crueler when a manager hears one of his former players say they could have saved his job.

When Stoke City slipped towards the Premier League relegation zone, following a terrible run of form, ex QPR boss Mark Hughes was given the boot.

As so often happens a new manager has come in - Paul Lambert - and there has been an immediate response with the Potters beating fellow relegation rivals Huddersfield Town 2-0 at the weekend.

Hughes was sacked by QPR after less than a year in charge at Loftus Road, coming in in January 2012 and departing in November.

Stoke defender Erik Pieters admitted he felt sorry for former boss Hughes, feeling that the players could have saved him from the sack.

Speaking to our friends at the Stoke Sentinel after the win, he said: "Every manager has got his own style, but it's more coming from us because we worked hard.

"It's a bit of a shame as well, because if we did it under the old manager we shouldn't be here.

"It is not fair to him, to Mark Hughes, but we did and this is the result and now we have to fight back."

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