Hull City 0-3 Stoke City: Lewis Baker scores twice in Potters win

Lewis Baker scored twice as Stoke cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Hull at the MKM Stadium for their first win under new boss Alex Neil.

Stoke took the lead midway through the second half when Baker's free-kick deflected past Matt Ingram and the visitors grabbed a second on the stroke of half-time through Ben Wilmot's header.

Baker gave the visitors an unassailable advantage in the second period when his curling finish from outside the area made it three, with the Potters captain playing a part in every goal with two goals and an assist.

Sky Bet Championship football returned after a perfectly observed minute's silence from both sets of supporters to commemorate the Queen followed by a loud rendition of the national anthem which rang around the MKM Stadium.

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The Potters started brightly and fashioned a couple of early half-chances through Will Smallbone and Liam Delap but failed to threaten Ingram with either chance in the opening five minutes.

Hull began to make their mark as both sides created opportunities, but Ozan Tufan's first shot on target in the 11th minute went straight down the throat of Josef Bursik - a late addition to the line-up after keeper Jack Bonham picked up an injury in the warm-up.

The home side gifted a couple of free-kicks to the visitors in dangerous positions and when Jordan Thompson was tripped outside the box, Baker punished the Tigers as his shot took a big deflection off the wall to wrong-foot Ingram and give Stoke the lead.

Delap was a bright spark throughout the half for the Potters and the Manchester City loanee broke forward after a clever Dwight Gayle flick but directed his tame effort straight at Ingram.

The away side made Hull pay from another set-piece as Baker turned provider with a delicious ball onto the head of Wilmot, who rose highest to get his second goal in as many games to make it 2-0.

Stoke could have had the game out of sight less than a minute after the interval but Smallbone could not guide his one-on-one effort past the keeper.

Dimitrios Pelkas was introduced as a second-half substitute by home boss Shota Arveladze and almost made an immediate impact when his effort inside the box crashed off the post to deny the Tigers a route back into the match.

Hull upped the ante in search of a breakthrough and Bursik was on hand again to deny Slater's powerful effort from the edge of the area.

The relentless, aggressive and efficient Stoke attack showed no signs of letting up and had a third 64 minutes in through Baker's fine finish from outside the area to put the game beyond any doubt.

What the managers said...

Hull's Shota Arveladze: "I did not expect this today. We did not have a game on Saturday, which should give us more energy, but the game went a different way. We need to play our own game and not wait for something to happen and then react, or the opposition doesn't do well and then we react. If we observe the first 15 minutes or half an hour it could be too late."

"It (goals conceded) is a lot. I don't want to have an excuse. Whatever happens, we have to go into the next game and do a lot better than we have in the last three."

Stoke's Alex Neil: "What I wanted for the players tonight was to play with a bit of belief and determination and I thought we got all of that. I thought we scored some good goals at good times, and thought we were hard to break down. I thought we looked a real threat going forward every time we broke so really pleased to score three goals, great to get a clean sheet and certainly a great win on the road. With Lewis, he's got quality, he's got goals from the middle of the park, he's got legs, can pass the ball - we just need to make sure with him and everybody else that there's a level of consistency."

"I'm more pleased for the players because when you have given them new messages and are asking them to do different things, nothing confirms that (better) than a good win. So I'm glad it (the win) came sooner rather than later. For the preparation for this match, it gave me an extra couple of days where I could show the players exactly what we are looking to do, how we could approach it, and I think they carried it out well."

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