Stoke City

Mark Elliott
BBC Radio Stoke’s Stoke City Commentator

Image source, Getty Images

As if having no available full-backs was not bad enough, Stoke had to patch up their back four again to cover for the loss of Ben Gibson, the latest player to join a growing list of absentees.

Gibson had been playing at left-back, despite being a centre-back by trade but he is left-footed, unlike Bosun Lawal who replaced him.

Lawal had already played at centre-back, right-back, in central midfield, as a 10 and up front this season before adding another position to his CV.

He did well, as did Maksym Talovierov on the other side, and the clean sheet Stoke kept at Norwich was well deserved despite the makeshift nature of the team.

Stoke still have the best defensive record in the league and seem solid no matter what personnel boss Mark Robins deploys.

Sam Gallagher cannot play for 90 minutes as he works his way back to full fitness and Sorba Thomas has played more minutes than anyone would recommend as the breakout star of the Championship season in a squad that has relied on his attacking output.

They both scored as Stoke dominated the second half.

This was a very impressive performance from a team missing six outfield players and their first-choice goalkeeper, who happens to probably be the best in the division.

Two away wins to start 2026 have put Stoke back on track and now, thankfully they get a break.

Between now and the next league game in a couple of weeks, Stoke will look for reinforcements from the treatment room, Afcon and the transfer market but vitally they will do it from a much better position than anyone thought possible at Christmas.

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Stoke boss Mark Robins was proud of his depleted side's efforts as they produced two moments of class to win 2-0 at Norwich.

Sam Gallagher scored his first Stoke goal in 10 months before top scorer Sorba Thomas sealed the Potters' back-to-back away wins to the delight of Robins.

He told BBC Radio Stoke: "We've got a squad of 20 outfield players and seven of them are out, so we've got a fairly unhealthy sick list at the minute and that's really difficult.

"On the back of the four games, we've got players who are playing a lot of minutes, yet they demonstrated incredible courage to get on the ball. They showed incredible work, a great work ethic, and there were some incredible bits of quality in there as well.

"The two goals were the epitome of that quality and they stood out head and shoulders above anything else that happened in the game. It probably wasn't brilliant to watch for lots of the game, but those bits of quality were worth the admission fee, I would imagine."

Mark Elliott
BBC Radio Stoke’s Stoke City Commentator

Image source, Shutterstock

The 17 minutes of added time was about as welcome as another plate of beige leftovers, but Stoke got through them and go into the final fixture of the festive period at Norwich off the back of a win that feels like it could be worth much more than three points.

Context is key as always and Stoke came into this dealing with a whole host of very different problems.

On a poor run of form that had gone on for 10 games, and three days on from a home defeat that saw sections of the fanbase register their displeasure, they needed a result to stay in touch with a top six they had looked certain to remain a part of 14 games into the season.

Struggling for goals and looking shakier defensively than at any point since May, they were visiting a team chasing the top two.

Finally, there was the growing list of injuries and absentees. Aaron Cresswell, Junior Tchamadeu and Lewis Baker are key while Ben Pearson and Eric Bocat are established first team players and none were available for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps the biggest blow was revealed just before kick-off when it emerged that Viktor Johansson, undoubtedly one of the best goalkeepers in the league, a leader and a huge character in the dressing room was out with a shoulder injury.

That the club decided to recall and play England youth international Tommy Simkin from a loan at Leyton Orient rather than turn to regular reserve Jack Bonham suggests the Swede won't be back anytime soon.

On paper, the chances of an away win were slim.

But with a 21-year-old making his second league appearance for the club acquitting himself admirably in goal, two centre-backs at full-back and another in midfield, Stoke were resilient, tenacious and well worth their 1-0 win.

They rode their luck at times, Hull hit the frame of the goal twice but they deserved at least some good fortune and could have scored more themselves.

The only negative was the addition of Robert Bozenik to the list of the walking wounded with a horrible looking shoulder injury suffered minutes after he finally scored his first goal for the club.

But this was the sort of performance and win against the odds that can galvanise a team and change the course of a season.

If they can find 11 fit and available players and follow it up with a similar performance and result at Norwich on Sunday, Stoke will be right back on track.

Stoke City manager Mark Robins has praised his side's style of play in their 0-1 win at Hull City on New Year's Day.

Robert Bozenik tapped in the winner in the first half thanks to a Lamine Cisse cross whose goal moves the Potters into ninth and back into the play-off mix.

"I'm delighted because it's not an easy place to come," said the former Coventry boss to BBC Radio Stoke.

"The pitch wasn't great. What was great was the way we tried to play, the way we moved the ball on it.

"The support was outstanding. I think away from home, the fans have been incredible, so thanks to them for that.

"Obviously, we've had our challenges this week, so it's been a really good result at the end of that. It shows the work that's gone on at the training ground with the players who haven't played too much.

"Things have started to sink in a little bit, and you can see the games are different when you've played.

"That's a third game in a short space of time, and on Saturday we travel to Norwich for the game on Sunday. It's tough, really tough, so they deserve an awful lot of credit."

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Tottenham have recalled midfielder Jamie Donley from his loan spell at Championship side Stoke City.

The 20-year-old joined the Potters on 6 August and made an immediate impact, registering an assist on his debut in their 3-1 opening-day win over Derby County three days later.

Donley departs Stoke having made six substitute appearances – four in the league and two in the Carabao Cup.

He made his Northern Ireland debut in March and scored his first international goal in November's win over Luxembourg in World Cup qualifying.

Image source, Opta

Championship promotion-chasing Hull City will look to continue their impressive run of form when they welcome a faltering Stoke City on New Year's Day (15:00 GMT kick-off).

The Tigers are fourth and only two points off the automatic promotion places after a five-game unbeaten run (W4 D1), including an impressive 1-0 win at Middlesbrough last time out.

The Potters have slipped to 10th, four points adrift of the top six, after just two wins from their past 10 games (D1 L7).

• Hull City have lost this exact fixture in each of the past four campaigns, failing to score in three of those defeats. The Tigers lost 2-1 at home to the Potters last season.

• Stoke City have only won more away games in the EFL against West Bromwich Albion (26) than Hull City (14 – level with Wolves).

• Hull's first league game of the year hasn't ended in a draw in any of the past 12 years (W6 L6), since a goalless draw with Blackpool on New Year's Day 2013.

• Stoke's games on New Year's Day in both 2024 (v Ipswich) and 2025 (v Burnley) ended goalless = only three teams have ever had three consecutive games on 1 January end 0-0 in the EFL: Hull City (1972-1977), Stoke City (1972-1977) and Hereford United (1994-2008).

• Against no side has Hull City's Matt Crooks scored more goals against in the EFL than Stoke City (5 - level with Bristol City).

Mark Elliott
BBC Radio Stoke commentator

Image source, Shutterstock

For the first time this season, sections of the Stoke fanbase became audibly frustrated and second-half substitutions were greeted with boos, ironic cheers or a mixture of both as the Potters lost at home to Sheffield United.

Mark Robins called for unity, took aim at the criticism of individual players whose effort he could not fault and praised the supporters' response to Stoke's goal and improved second-half performance.

The fans' frustration and their response to that renewed hope was an outpouring of emotion provoked by the unmistakable and all-too-familiar feeling of a chance at success slipping away like a bar of soap in a power shower.

Stoke are on a run that cannot go on if they are to challenge at the right end of the table and end a slide that has now gone on for 10 league games after a brilliant start to the season.

They are without key players, low on confidence and face two away games to begin a vital January on and off the pitch.

They need to wheel and deal if they can to add attacking quality to the squad but they also, perhaps more than anything, need more of their summer signings to accelerate their acclimatisation to the Championship.

Lamine Cisse impressed in his substitute appearance and needs to become a viable starting option quickly, something he has the ability to do. Ditto Tomas Rigo and Robert Bozenik.

All three are new to the league and have understandably taken time to adjust to the demands of the EFL and all three have shown quality in bursts, having been signed for the long term.

But Stoke are looking to reinvigorate their season, are constrained by profit and sustainability rules and could really do with the additions they made at a cost of several million pounds to come good sooner rather than later.

It's not just those three. It's time for the likes of Sam Gallagher and Ben Gibson, fringe players until now, to show their worth, having made their first starts of the season.

Stoke are in a tough spell, as a group they will need to show their character to get through it and the support of the crowd is probably more vital than at any other time in this campaign.

The next four to five weeks will probably go a long way to deciding what, if anything, Stoke are playing for come March and April.

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Stoke boss Mark Robins was angry with the Potters fans who booed his players during the 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United.

Robins urged them to show more understanding when he is down to the bare bones because of injury.

Robins told BBC Radio Stoke: "You can make changes, and by the way, the changes I made, I don't like the booing because we've got a limited squad and those players need the support as well as anybody else.

"I don't like that. They're all trying, regardless of what people think. For whatever reason, you know, I'll make those changes. When that happens, I don't expect my substitutions to be booed. You know, you don't expect that because it's done at the right time for the right reasons.

"We're all on the same page, and we're all supportive, and we hate losing games of football, all of us, collectively, all of us. You win them together, and you lose them together, and you draw them together.

"In the second half, I know that performance was much, much better and what the supporters expect."

Mark Elliott
BBC Radio Stoke commentator

Image source, Getty Images

Stoke's draw with Preston was a game that embodied the first half of the Potters season.

Really good up to the final third, where they didn't create enough to take an additional two points from the Championship's draw specialists, Preston North End.

Mark Robins, his players, Stoke fans and pundits alike have spent weeks speaking about the need for a sharper cutting edge to turn a season of promise into achievement.

The newer talking point coming out of this game was the sudden loss of all of the Potters' recognised full-backs.

Eric Bocat missed the game with injury, Junior Tchamadeu is away with Cameroon at AFCON, and now Aaron Cresswell faces time out after limping off against Preston.

With only two days to prepare for another game at home against Sheffield United, Stoke boss Robins has a headache to contend with.

That's probably not enough time to embed a change of system properly with enough centre-backs available to make a change to a back three plausible on paper.

Bosun Lawal offers some dynamism as a makeshift right-back but definitely fits into the category marked square peg in round hole, while on the left, it was down to Ben Gibson to fill in.

He acquitted himself well but he is a centre-back by trade and doesn't attack with the same threat of any of the players he's trying to replace.

Without the overlapping or underlapping presence Tchamadeu provides, and the quality of delivery that Cresswell offers, the dynamic of Stoke's attack changes so profoundly, making overloads on either wing so much harder to obtain.

How Robins solves that problem while continuing to improve Stoke's attacking threat will define the next few games.

Stoke City boss Mark Robins was frustrated at his team's lack of cutting edge in their goalless draw with Preston.

But he was also encouraged by their overall performance and believes they have solid foundations platform to build from.

"It is a point more than we got last Saturday, so I will take that, and I thought the performance was pretty good," he told BBC Radio Stoke.

"We created quite a lot and were on top in all the metrics if you are a data person.

"We were on top in the game against a side who give very little away and have beaten teams up this season.

"I thought we did pretty well for nine-tenths of the game, it was just the final bit, the finish, where we have been in really good positions but have failed to hit the back of the net.

"We can be happy with a lot of the elements, but you want the three points from a performance as strong as that. But we have to take it. Last three we have won one, drawn one, lost one.

"We are into the second half of the season now and we would like to do better than in the first half, and there's no reason why we can't."

Image source, Opta

Stoke City welcome Preston North End for a clash between two sides battling for the play-offs on Friday afternoon (15:00 GMT kick-off).

The Potters have won just one of their past five (L4) and are two points behind the top-six.

The Lilywhites are unbeaten in their past six games (W2 D4) and have only lost one of their previous 11.

• Stoke have won just one of their past 12 home league games against Preston (D6 L5) and are winless in all seven since relegation from the Premier League in 2018 (D2 L5).

• The away team is unbeaten in the previous 11 league meetings between Stoke and Preston (D4 L7), since the Lilywhites' 3-1 home win in August 2019.

• Stoke lost 2-0 against Leeds on Boxing Day last year, last losing consecutive Boxing Day league games in 2008/2009.

• Preston have won three of their past four Boxing Day league games (L1), as many as they had in their previous 16 (D7 L6).

• Stoke's Mark Robins won his first three Football League matches against Preston – since then, he's winless in all 13 against the Lilywhites (D5 L8)

Mark Elliott
BBC Radio Stoke commentator

Image source, Shutterstock

The close games Stoke were winning during the first quarter of the season have now turned into defeats.

They were decent in possession and worth a point at Watford but got nothing and again looked relatively blunt in attack.

Stoke face a couple of big home games between Christmas and New Year as they try to enter 2026 in the Championship's top six but to do that they'll have to solve three immediate problems.

Firstly, they'll have to deal with what the manager Mark Robins called a changed dynamic, created by the absence of Junior Tchamadeu.

Maksym Talovierov covered for him at Vicarage Road and did ok but looked too uncomfortable leaving space behind him to offer enough to meaningfully support Stoke's attack.

Talovierov is a centre back by trade and will come again but Tchamadeu's absence affected the balance of the team significantly.

Secondly, they'll need to win the first contact from crosses and set-pieces around both boxes more often to maximise their own attacking threat and eliminate a flaw that's crept into their game at the other end, despite their status as the best defence in the division in terms of goals conceded.

Finally, they need to be more efficient in front of goal, but that is something everyone who watches Stoke regularly has been saying for a while.

At Watford, they didn't create or take enough shooting opportunities but that is an all too regular criticism made both internally and externally.

It's not too late for those within the building to provide the solution but it may be, profit and sustainability rules permitting, that January and the transfer window could arrive at the perfect time.

Stoke City boss Mark Robins criticised his team's "galling" defending for the goal which led to their defeat against Watford.

The Potters were on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline at Vicarage Road after conceding from a set play. The result was Stoke's fourth defeat in five Championship matches.

Robins told BBC Radio Stoke: "We lost it with a set play. It was galling, it really is galling.

"They have got too many first contacts and we were big - that's desire, and 'You are not going to beat me in the air, you are not going to run off me'. The fact of the matter is they have run off us.

"Prior to that it's a nothing free-kick. We give the free-kick away and it's a chance for them to load it in our box and they do it with quality because they have got quality players on the ball. [Imran] Louza is a player you don't want to give too many opportunities to load your box. We did that and didn't deal with it.

"There's bits and pieces but not enough goal attempts. It's the same story. There wasn't that much in it but it's just disappointing that we come out on the wrong end of a scoreline again and away from home."

Stoke City's players and staff will be able to spend Christmas Day with their families, says head coach Mark Robins.

The Potters visit Watford on Saturday (15:00 GMT) before hosting Preston on Boxing Day (15:00) and have a home game with Sheffield United on the evening of 29 December.

"When you come to work you leave that world behind. Coming up to Christmas is important for everybody who celebrates it and it's important people spend time with family as much as they can," Robins told BBC Radio Stoke.

"Our programme will reflect that. They'll get some time with their families but obviously get the work done for tomorrow (Saturday) and then everything done for Preston prior to Christmas Day because I'll give that day to be with their families.

"That's the way I've done it for a number of years and I think the players appreciate that and pay it back."

Many clubs will have their players in training on Christmas Day ahead of their matches on 26 December and Robins has experienced both approaches as a player himself.

"I've done it both ways - been in Christmas Day, travelled Christmas Day and been in the hotel so you miss the family so that's the sacrifice, if you can call it that because millions of people would swap places with us," he said.

"Christmas is important because of the family side of things and I try to incorporate that but you know what you're doing when you're working in football, if you don't like that then you're in the wrong job really."

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