Chairman Peter Coates says he is hopeful of seeing Stoke City turn improved form into precious league points in time to challenge at the right end of the table. He admits he was hoping for better than 14th place – currently six points outside the top six – after 17 games of Stoke’s return to the second tier. But he has seen enough in recent games to believe a corner can be turned in time to nudge Stoke nearer the play-off picture. “We would like to be doing better, I think that is fair to say,” he observed, “and I am concerned that we have already lost three home games, two of them poorly against Wigan and Blackburn. “Birmingham you could say we were a bit unlucky not to get something from the game, but it is three defeats and without those three games it would look a different picture. “There is a lot of work to do to make up for that, but I think we are getting better, I feel we are improving.” He concedes that the changeover in status, management and personnel over the summer took a bigger toll than many might have anticipated following last May’s relegation. “We have had a lot of change and clearly it is taking time,” he continued. “The transition is always difficult and perhaps you sometimes under-estimate just how difficult, but I am encouraged by recent form. “In a perfect world we will now put a run together and we have… [Read full story]
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