STOKE, England (AP) - Stoke gave its manager Paul Lambert a winning start with a 2-0 home victory against Huddersfield on Saturday which took the team out of the Premier League relegation zone.
Stoke started brightly but had to wait until the second half for the goals to come as Joe Allen and then Mame Biram Diouf got their names on the scoresheet.
Lambert watched the 3-0 defeat at Manchester United from the stands and he made four changes from the team that started on Monday night. Ryan Shawcross and Erik Pieters made their returns from injury while Charlie Adam and Diouf were also recalled.
New signing Kostas Stafylidis was not involved while Peter Crouch was one of the players to drop down to the bench, amid speculation that Chelsea is interested in signing the big striker.
Adam set Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting free down the left and his cut back was steered into the bottom corner of the net by Allen after 53 minutes.
Xherdan Shaqiri brought a couple of saves from Jonas Lossl before a lovely flick set up Diouf for the second goal in the 69th minute, with the Senegalese sliding a shot into the net off the inside of a post.
Huddersfield is now without a win in six Premier League matches.
Stoke fired manager Mark Hughes on Jan. 6 following an FA Cup loss to fourth-tier Coventry.
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