Second-bottom Crystal Palace were beaten for a sixth time in eight Premier League matches under Sam Allardyce as Joe Allen's second-half strike condemned them to a 1-0 defeat at Stoke.
Palace were in considerable need of a boost a week on from the humiliating 4-0 home loss to basement boys Sunderland.
But they found themselves on the end of another defeat after Allen fired into the bottom corner in the 67th minute following good work from Ramadan Sobhi.
In a game that was pretty low on entertainment, Stoke had gone close to scoring just before the break when the impressive Bruno Martins Indi's header was cleared off the line by Andros Townsend.