2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Peter Smith)
Mark Robins has warned his Stoke City players they need to get more points to be sure of safety heading into the two final games of the season. Stoke return to the bet365 Stadium on Friday night (8pm) tasked with bouncing back from a horror show at Leeds when they take on a Sheffield United side now destined to finish in the Championship play-offs. Results on Monday left Stoke sitting four points clear of the bottom three and knowing that one win will guarantee survival.
Other results – such as a defeat for Luton Town or Derby County on Saturday – could do that too but Robins wants his team to dictate their own future. He said: “There’s four points in it now and you’ve got to expect teams to win below you. They’re not just going to give it up.
There’s a lot of football to be played and we’ve got to pick more points up. “If anybody thought it was done, they’re daft. “We’ve got to get back to it because there’s a game against Sheffield United at home when I expect us to be much, much better, much more competitive.
We’ve got to lick our wounds because it was a tough 90 minutes at Leeds.” Stoke’s 6-0 thrashing at Leeds was the club’s first defeat by that margin or more in 15 years, since a 7-0 hammering at Chelsea in the Premier League under Tony Pulis in April 2010. The only other time they have lost by six this century was at Nottingham Forest in February 2003, when they went on to stay up on the final day.
It has only happened 21 times to Stoke ever in the league and Robins is demanding a huge reaction when they head out to play again. “I want us to be competitive,” he said. “I want us to be competitive and on the front foot and how we have been.
The Leeds game was just a world away from where we’ve been. “Again, we can’t get too high or too low as I’ve said before. We’ve got to make sure we now gather ourselves and get ready for Friday, which is a really important game.
“That fixture and that defeat is something you don’t want to experience again. You can get beat by teams at the top of the league – and Leeds haven’t lost at Elland Road all season – but that’s no consolation and we’ve got to make sure we’re better and more competitive and be prepared to lay a glove on people. “If you make mistakes, so be it – but do it in a way where you’re trying to achieve something rather than trying to avoid something.
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