Pulis praise for sturdy Stoke

Stoke City boss Tony Pulis identified second-half resiliency as the key to Saturday’s 2-0 win over a determined Bolton Wanderers.

Danny Higginbotham, in his 350th appearance, opened Stoke City’s account in the 37th minute in a goalmouth scramble, prompting the Wanderers to come out firing in the second half.

But Matty Etherington broke Bolton’s resistance from the penalty spot after being felled in the box by Zat Knight in the 63rd minute, allowing Stoke to take a valuable three points and keep pace with the top 10 on the league table.

“It is always a difficult game against Bolton and I thought first half we deserved to come in winning,” Pulis said.

“They came out second half for 15 or 20 minutes, (and) they put us under a little bit of pressure, as you’d expect.”

“But as the game opened up I always thought we looked very, very dangerous on the break and the goal came from there.”

“We enjoy what we do and the players work tremendously hard. It was a big game for us today and very pleasing.”

“I was really pleased with that performance. There are a lot people looking over their shoulders this year. It is such an unusual table, not just at the bottom but the top as well.”

But it was not all good news for Pulis, who was informed prior to the game that Hoffenheim striker Demba Ba had failed a medical at Britannia Stadium, putting his reported 7.1-million-pound transfer in jeopardy.

“I am desperately disappointed. You look at him and he has a tremendous scoring record,” Pulis said.

“We have been over to watch him three or four times. Everyone has come back with good reports. But we have to put the club first and I understand that.”

“We thought he’d be a very, very good player for us, very exciting but unfortunately at the moment there is a stumbling block on his medical so I don’t think it’s going to go through as we speak but who knows.”

“The money involved is huge. Obviously they found something which could cause problems later.”

Bolton boss Owen Coyle lambasted Knight for his challenge on Etherington that gifted Stoke their second goal.

“It was a poor penalty for us to give away,” Coyle said.

“Zat Knight has been outstanding but he knows he should have stayed up.”

“Etherington was on his weaker foot and sometimes you have to recognise these situations.”

“(Goalkeeper) Jussi Jaaskelainen nearly saved the penalty but we found ourselves 2-0 down.”