Stoke were left rueing a missed opportunity after being held to a tetchy 0-0 draw at home by QPR.
The play-off chasing Potters, who were looking for a third win in a row, enjoyed the better of the first-half opportunities against a visiting side content to sit back and soak up pressure.
Lamine Cisse, Tomas Rigo and Divin Mubama all went close during a bright opening 20 minutes from the hosts.
But too often Stoke's lack of cutting edge was all too evident as they struggled to find a way through QPR's well-drilled defence.
It was a similar tale in the second half for the mis-firing hosts, with a stop-start half doing little to help them get into their attacking stride.
Ashley Phillips and Bae Jun-Ho saw the best of City's chances go begging, white Kealey Adamson blazed a golden chance to win it for Rangers in stoppage time.
Stoke started on the front foot with Joe Walsh beating away a fierce long-range snap-shot from Rigo inside the opening 10 minutes.
Cisse hit the side-netting after getting on the end of Rigo's teasing cross minutes later as Stoke continued to set the early pace.
The lively Rigo fired wide from a tight angle after a good run by Jun-ho created an opening while
Mubama headed just over from a Sorba Thomas corner after 20 minutes.
Ben Pearson produced a brilliant sliding tackle to nick the ball away from Kader Dembele after the visitors sprung a three-on-one counter-attack.
Maksym Talovierov turned the ball behind as Richard Kone prepared to tap home Amadou Mbengue's cross.
Mubama then scuffed an effort straight at the keeper in the 32nd minute after the Rangers defence failed to clear a Thomas cross.
Talovierov was unable to divert Mubama's shot into the net after having little time to react following a City corner seven minutes later.
Mbengue did well to block a Thomas header after the Stoke winger connected with a Rigo cross in first-half stoppage-time.
The hosts were dealt a blow at the start of the second half when Mubama was carried off after being caught by a late tackle by Jimmy Dunne.
Phillips headed a deep Thomas set-piece wide from the resulting free-kick and Paul Smyth skied an effort over after creating half a yard of space just outside the box.
Walsh comfortably saved a well-struck effort by Jun-Ho after 74 minutes as Stoke began to enjoy a good spell of possession.
Phillips headed narrowly over from a dangerous Thomas cross with five minutes to go.
Adamson lacked composure deep into added time after finding himself in on goal.
Kone tamely headed straight at the keeper two minutes later from Adamson's dinked cross.
Stoke's Mark Robins:
"It was a terrible foul. I don't think (Jimmy) Dunne is that type of player and it was a tough one to take.
"Divin is a young player who is working his socks off to try and get back to the level he was at at the start of the season.
"That chance has now been taken away from him. It is a really tough blow for him and another injury we have suffered.
"We have got a stretched squad and you can't keep sustaining injuries. I'm really disappointed for Divin. He has really suffered.
"I hope he is in a decent level of comfort now and can get himself back as soon as possible.
"At this moment in time I am fuming and trying to keep a lid on it. We want to attack the top six and we have to keep a calm head and take a breath.
"We have got to make sense of what we have got and what comes next. I will take stock of it with my staff.
"We will be working hard in terms of trying to recover and get ready for Wednesday, that is all that matters."
QPR's Julien Stephan:
"I think it was a good point for us. The players showed resilience and a good mindset and we were organised defensively.
"The players showed great maturity. We knew that if we stayed very focused we would have chances. We had two good opportunities to win it.
"We didn't use the ball well but, defensively, our mentality and how we protected our box and organisation was very good.
"All the credit to the players. It was a good performance. Two months ago it probably wouldn't have been the same result at the end, but the players have shown improvement in terms of maturity."
