Stephen Ireland seizes Stoke chance

Stoke City 3 QPR 1: Stoke midfielder Stephen Ireland has vowed to do all he can for the rest of the season to fill the void left by Bojan Krkic’s injury.

The Potters suffered a major setback around a week ago when influential playmaker Bojan sustained cruciate knee ligament damage that ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign.

The Spaniard was replaced in the first XI for Saturday’s Premier League home clash with QPR by Ireland — only his fifth start this term, two months on from the previous one. And the 28-year-old Irishman made the most of his opportunity, providing the assists from which Jon Walters scored the opening two goals of his hat-trick in Stoke’s 3-1 victory.