Stephan reveals he nearly subbed Vale off

Queens Park Rangers head coach Julien Stephan admitted he came close to substituting Harvey Vale before the youngster scored his match-winning goal against Stoke City.

Vale struck in the 75th minute for his first Championship goal, curling a fine effort into the far corner.

Stephan said: "In the last 20 minutes I had a lot of hesitation and, to be honest, I imagined that Kaddie [Dembele] would enter the pitch for Harvey [Vale], yes. It was the plan.

"But we didn't change and in the last 15 minutes I felt the players were continuing to do well physically and to enter the pitch in these kind of games is not easy. So we chose to stay like this."

The win means the Rs have now won three consecutive games since their 7-1 defeat at Coventry City and Stephan added: "In the season you have some good moments and bad moments and that was a bad moment.

"It's finished now and we learned a lot. Now we have won three in a row, that is [also] finished and we have to be focused on the next games."