BLACKBURN Rovers' misery on their travels continued at Stoke City this afternoon as they crashed 3-0 at the Britannia Stadium.

Stoke were fortunate to take a 2-0 lead into the break, with Rovers dominant, but Chris Samba's red card after the break destroyed any hopes of a comeback.

Chris Samba received his second yellow card at the start of the second half, for a little tug on Ricardo Fuller - making Rovers' tough task almost impossible.

Goalkeeper Paul Robinson produced good saves from Ryan Shawcross and Liam Lawrence headers but Matthew Etherington's sweet curled finish made it 3-0 on 67 minutes.

Rovers then looked as though they could be on the end of a real hammering as Stoke took advantage of their numerical advantage to pile on the pressure.

Goals from Danny Higginbotham and Mamady Sidibe gave Stoke City an undeserved 2-0 half time lead.

Higginbotham capitalised on some slack marking to volley home Liam Lawrence's corner on nine minutes, before Sidibe lost Gael Givet to prod home in first half injury time.

Between that Rovers were dominant but failed to convert, with Chris Samba having a header cleared off the line, Franco Di Santo heading over and Steven Nzonzi volleying over.