By Harry Slavin For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 17:54 GMT, 12 January 2019 | Updated: 18:30 GMT, 12 January 2019
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Nathan Jones admitted he was married to his former club Luton Town. He may have been questioning his grounds for divorce as he watched his honeymoon period at Stoke evaporate after a chastening defeat at Brentford.
A Ryan Shawcross own goal followed by a Said Benrahma strike for the hosts set the tone at Griffin Park, and although Benik Afobe pulled one back, they were never really in it at Griffin Park.
Rico Henry’s second-half strike put the gloss on a scoreline that still didn’t reflect their grip on this game.
Stoke City's players show their dejection as they fall to a 3-1 defeat against Brentford
Nathan Jones was taking charge of his first match as Stoke manager since joining from Luton
Not the start Jones would have envisaged, then, as the Potters suffered their third league defeat in four.
The 45-year-old took over from Gary Rowett on Wednesday and talked up a philosophy fans can be proud of. There was little sign of that on Saturday.
His first statement on the pitch was a change in formation, ditching 4-3-3 in favour of the 4-3-1-2 which had served him so well at Luton.
’We came here with a brave shape and asked the team to do certain things,’ said Jones. ‘But we didn’t have the best