Pulis: Stoke can take extra burden

Stoke City boss Tony Pulis is pleased with the way his men are handling their increased workload this term after a 3-1 home win over Blackburn.

Goals from Rory Delap, Glenn Whelan and Peter Crouch were enough to seal a promising victory for the 53-year-old’s team, who had lost their previous four Premier League games.

With their Europa League schedule meaning games are coming thick and fast, including a home clash with Dynamo Kiev on Thursday, Pulis acknowledged his men had struggled to cope but is pleased with their efforts.

“They’ve trained well this week, they’ve been very focused,” Pulis said.

“I think what we have to recognise sometimes is the workload, that we have played, so far, 10 more midweek games than most clubs in the Premier League this year and all the rebounds on the European games have been away from home.”

“It’s been a different strain on the players in a lot of respects and you have to deal with it and at the moment we’ve not dealt with it that brilliantly.”

“Crouchy’s not trained, Rory hasn’t trained, Matty Etherington never trained and the way those two played today I’ll give them next week off.”

The defeat saw Blackburn remain in the drop-zone and heaped yet more pressure on under-fire manager Steve Kean.

Pulis stressed that his opposite number must learn to take the scrutiny if he is to be successful.

“I’ve been fortunate or unfortunate enough to be a football manager for a long time and it’s a very lonely job at times when things aren’t going well,” Pulis said.

“You have to concentrate really hard and it’s difficult, it’s not easy, you have to really, really stay focused and stay strong.”

“He’s a young manager and if he wants to stay in the game and wants to be managing for a long time then he will have to learn to accept it.”