James McClean opened the scoring after 35 minutes, before Joe Allen doubled the hosts’ advantage with a header just before half-time. The Wales international grabbed his second and the Potters’ third of the night five minutes after the break as he curled in from the edge of the box.

Jones said: “For 35 minutes we came to Stoke and reasonably controlled the game, I don’t remember them having an effort on our goal. Ryan Tunnicliffe has got a great opportunity in the six yard box, but doesn’t pull the trigger.

“Then an individual effort, all of a sudden we are one-nil down. Trying to attack, we get picked off, two-nil. We tried to change a few things at half-time with bringing George and Glen on for a bit more solidity. Another individual error and you’re 3-0 down.

“It’s not frustrating, it’s impossible. It’s happened too often. The result is a result of those errors, you can’t play at this level and give goals to the opposition – that’s what we’re doing at the moment.

“You have to measure, we’ve had 21 games, we’re fourth bottom, so it’s job done at this moment in time. But obviously the job won’t be done if we keep making those errors and that’s where the work is in the short term, and in the long term - we make sure we improve on what we have got.”