Peter Crouch admitted Stoke had to go "back to the old school'' and could have been rewarded with three points against Manchester United.
Ryan Shawcross turned in Crouch's header for an early opener but Radamel Falcao's goal earned United a 1-1 draw.
Crouch hit the post and was denied a penalty when another header from a corner hit Chris Smalling's hand.
And he told Sky Sports 1: "I know I won the header cleanly, it was on target and Smalling had his hands up. I thought it was a definite penalty but I'd have to see it again. We had chances, we've hit the post, we would have liked to have won it but in the scheme of things maybe a draw was fair.
"With the conditions today it was a little bit back to the old-school days.
"It's another string to our bow, we've got good players now and we can get the ball down and play but we are strong at set-pieces -- although we conceded from one today, which was disappointing.''