Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has admitted that he is 'worried' his side's confidence has taken a battering after suffering a heavy defeat against Tottenham Hotspur.
The Potters conceded four goals in a one-sided second half in Saturday afternoon's Premier League clash to lose 5-1 at Wembley Stadium.
Hughes was happy with Stoke's first-half performance against their out-of-form opponents, but concedes that too many mistakes were made in the second 45 and lessons must quickly be learned ahead of their trip to Burnley in midweek.
"This league tests you week in week out. It's not good enough doing OK just for 45 minutes," he told BBC Sport. "I thought we had done reasonably well in the first half; I was quite encouraged by how we played. Their goal was an own goal with a couple of deflections and we had some good moments.
"But then we allowed two quick goals through situations that were of our own making - we had a corner and a free kick when within seconds of putting the ball in the box it's in the back of our net - that shouldn't happen. We started to chase the game and Spurs can then pick you off, which is what happened.
"We couldn't deal with their power and pace. We struggled in one-on-one situations, we needed to get tighter. In the first half we did well in that regard but in the second half we couldn't get close enough.
"Today will damage our confidence. That is the worry for us, because it's important we dust ourselves down for a very important game against Burnley on Tuesday. We will have to defend better than we did today."
Defeat for Stoke was their 1,000th in the English top flight, making them the 15th side to reach that milestone since its inception in 1888-89.
Daniel Lewis
