Stoke boss Tony Pulis seems like a down-to-earth guy who keeps his feet firmly on the ground.
Tony Pulis – feet firmly on the ground
And Tony is not getting too carried away with Stoke’s excellent and deserved 2-1 win last Saturday over West Ham, which takes them into the semi-finals of the FA Cup against Bolton Wanderers at Wembley.
Pulis is only too well aware that his side are just 3 points above the relegation zone, and they still need some points to get to safety.
The same is true for Newcastle, who are just two points better off then Stoke, but are still not safe yet.
Pulis has referred to the game tomorrow as a must win game for Stoke, which of course would take them above Newcastle in the league.
These league games against sides close together and in the bottom part of the table, will have a big effect on which sides end up being relegated this season.
There are just 5 points separating 8 teams from Newcastle on 36 points in 10th place, to Birmingham in 17th place (4th bottom) and on 31 points.
So there are at least 11 sides (and probably also Everton and Sunderland) who are not safe at the moment, and therefore every game between two clubs in those 11 (maybe even 13) take on added significance.
And that’s one way to look at the game at the Britannia Stadium tomorrow afternoon.
This is what Tony Pulis said today about the game against Newcastle United tomorrow::
“It is very, very important for the football club we stay focused on the league and we have a very, very tough game on Saturday against Newcastle. We have to win it.”
“They will be up for it and what we have to do is generate the same atmosphere we generated the other day against West Ham, both on the pitch and off the pitch.”
“The supporters have to stay focused on the league.” “We have had a three-year plan and we are not through it yet. At the end of the season I will talk about why it was so important to get through them.”
The game of course is a sell -out, and every away ticket has been sold on Tyneside, so we’ll see lots of Newcastle supporters at the Britannia Stadium tomorrow afternoon, to help roar on the lads.
We’d be happy enough with a draw tomorrow afternoon to be honest, but a defeat will likely bring some dark clouds hovering over Tyneside, following our disappointment at getting just one point from our previous two home games against Bolton and Everton.
But Newcastle will still be in a decent position in the league, and of course we still have to play relegation fighting Wolves, Birmingham and WBA at St. James’ Park during the run-in to the season.
So there’s 9 points right there – right?
Comments welcome.
9 comments so far
GeordieGerman
Mar 18, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Comment #1I have a really bad feeling about tomorrow, what with all our injuries (maybe more during training today). Woe woe woe is me.
TimToon9
Mar 18, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Comment #2Hate Stoke.. Hate the way they play.. Its a f. disgrace that they are in the Barclays PL… Hope they get relegated..
Spotlight Kid
Mar 18, 2011 at 11:53 AM
Comment #3The BBC sport website has a table predictor, you know the kind of thing – predict the scores and see what the table ends up as.
Well I gave it a whirl and was on the pessimistic side of realistic with the Toon’s results given our current unpredictable form. In the end we went down just ahead of Wigan and Birmingham on 41 points, just one point behind Stoke who have just as tricky a run in as we have (I forecast a loss against Stoke btw).
SO it is an important game as whichever the results go it will be that tight on judgement day – just like 2 years ago. Until we hit 45 points no-one can be complacent as someone will string some results together and pull clear.
Davies
Mar 18, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Comment #4Truthfully, I’d take a point tomorrow, VERY gladly. My greater concern is that we don’t pick up anymore injuries or suspensions.
Of course, if you’re playing at the Britannia, it’s going to be hard to avoid either….. and we still have Wolves to play.
Rotonda heights
Mar 18, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Comment #5timtoon9
spot on,
they make allardyce look like brazil ! Stoke are just a bunch of long ball thugs. i bet teams get more injuries off them than anyone else.
Sav
Mar 18, 2011 at 12:54 PM
Comment #6Stop the whinging lads, will yer?
Its like a conversation with Joe Effing Kinnear.
Stoke are Stoke. We are only 2 points better and run by a complete gobshite, so what do you expect?
We’ve longballed long enough and often enough in our history and if we bore them to tears at brittania and take away a point, great.
cheikmate
Mar 18, 2011 at 1:15 PM
Comment #7I think we will come away with at least a point tomorrow. We hav had a break following a bad result n the team will want to make up for that, where as stoke will hav one eye on the fa cup game next week.
And lets face it, stoke got a good result last week and no team this season has been able to produce a decent run so i can see us spoiling there party. A hope so anyway
Rotonda heights
Mar 18, 2011 at 1:16 PM
Comment #8Sav,
it’s called a forum mate. If no one ever had an opinion on anything well who knows what would happen then.
I hate Stoke, but I’m not the biggest pardew fan either and god knows when we had carroll we long balled for England.
The Power Ranger
Mar 18, 2011 at 1:45 PM
Comment #9How can you say that you hate the way they play when they stay in the league. I admire Stoke and Tony Pulis for identifying there strengths that ‘pretty’ teams like Arsenal can’t handle. Stoke aren’t going to play football, they play to there strengths and i think that if we had 4 strikers that are 7ft 8 then we would probably do the same.