Two goals from Ade Akinbiyi sealed a well-deserved win against Watford, which will now surely allow Stoke manager Tony Pulis to look up rather than down.
After being pegged back by early Hornets pressure, Stoke managed to break forward in the 18th minute when Peter Hoekstra supplied Gifton Noel-Williams inside the area. He turned his marker to whip the ball across the face of the goal for Ade Akinbiyi's to fire into the back of the net.
City went further ahead two minutes later when Hoekstra and Noel-Williams linked up perfectly again. Hoekstra picked out the powerful striker with a swinging ball form the left, allowing him to tower above Jerel Ifil and head into Lenny Pidgeley's bottom left corner from ten yards.
Watford did not lie down and put themselves back into contention due to some slack home defending.
Neal Ardley found Heidar Helguson lurking in space on the left side of the box and made the most of the chance, directing his header skilfully past Ed de Goey.
The Potters added another before the break due to a terrible mistake from Ifil when John Halls' long ball bounced over the central defender to put Akinbiyi clean through.
The City forward stayed calm under pressure from Pidgeley and cleanly slotted it underneath the on-rushing keeper.
Watford's frustrations were plain to see throughout the second half with manager Ray Lewington making three changes, but to no avail.
The only chance of the half fell right at the death when a poor clearance in the Stoke box allowed Paulo Vernazza to volley, but his shot flew wildly over the bar.
Watford manager Ray Lewington said: "We've had a nice little run and now its ended due to a poor defensive play.
"I'm happy with the effort and work rate but we never looked like we were going to score.
"It shows why we aren't up at the top when we do the right things just some of the time rather that all of the time."