Stoke & Staffordshire

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  1. Potters deserved win over Owls - Robinspublished at 18:22 18 April

    Stoke City celebrateImage source, Getty Images
    Image caption,

    Stoke City players celebrate their first goal in the win over Sheffield Wednesday

    Stoke City boss Mark Robins said his side were good value for their 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

    The Potters moved up to 50 points and have now won three of their past five games.

    "We've still got three games to go and we still want to finish the season strongly," he told BBC Radio Stoke.

    "I think from minute one to the hundredth minute we deserved the win. I thought we played some really good football, backed by a full house - my ears are still ringing.

    "It was a really good day and really well-earned win on the back of a good first goal and a fortuitous second one, although when you need a goal to go in off someone's backside, there you go.

    "We worked hard for it and were made to in the second half. They changed shape and personnel and they tried to lift the ball forward and put us under pressure aerially and we dealt with it."

  2. Robins 'excited' by Potters packed housepublished at 15:48 17 April

    Mark Robins claps Stoke fansImage source, Rex Features

    Mark Robins hopes a capacity crowd can roar Stoke City on towards Championship safety when they host Sheffield Wednesday on Friday (15:00 BST).

    The Potters sit four places and five points above the relegation zone with four games remaining after taking eight points from a four-match unbeaten run.

    Robins' side are also unbeaten in their past four at home, beating Blackburn and QPR and drawing with Watford and Luton since their last home defeat in February, against Middlesbrough - which is their only loss on home turf since Boxing Day.

    "There's some excitement again around how we're playing, the results that we are picking up and the belief that's starting to grow," Robins told BBC Radio Stoke.

    "What we've got to do is go and put in a performance that keeps the fans coming back."

    "It really is exciting," he added. "The noise level that we have experienced so far has been brilliant, so I'm really looking forward to them getting behind the players and hearing them in full voice and seeing the players reciprocate."

    Wednesday have picked up just two points from their past five games, though Robins remains wary of the threat of Danny Rohl's side, who are unbeaten in four away games, earning eight points.

    He said: "They'll be set-up to try and counter, to try and hurt us wherever they possibly can. They have got a strong squad and powerful players there and are coached really well."

  3. Stoke safe barring 'mathematical disaster'published at 11:32 17 April

    Media caption,

    ONE FOOT CLOSER

    "Personally I think it means you can breathe and relax. Not only is the result in itself colossal - we have a good gap to the relegation zone to the point where it would take a mathematical disaster for us the get relegated."

    Stoke fan Ben Rowley sums up the magnitude of the Potters' crucial 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Cardiff City on this week's episode of A Cold Wet Tuesday Night with BBC Radio Stoke's Lucas Yeomans.

    Victory took Mark Robins' side five points clear of the bottom three with four games to play.

    The pair look ahead to those matches, starting with Good Friday's home game with Sheffield Wednesday - where another win could all but seal their safety.

  4. 'Stoke realistically one win away from safety'published at 08:28 17 April

    Mark Elliott
    BBC Radio Stoke commentator

    BBC Sport's Stoke City 'expert view' banner
    Stoke City boss Mark Robins pats the club badge on his chest while looking towards the travelling fans after the 1-0 win at Cardiff

    Stoke City fans feel a whole lot better about their team's survival prospects after the 1-0 win at fellow strugglers Cardiff, which sent them five points clear of the Bluebirds in the final relegation place in the Championship.

    The Potters have hovered above the dotted line for much of the season, always threatening to pull away to safety before being dragged back into the pack, largely due to their own inconsistency.

    Since Mark Robins joined at the turn of the year, improvement has come steadily in increments and coincided with the return to fitness of a number of key players.

    The past eight games have yielded 12 points, better performances and just two defeats at Coventry and Millwall that probably could have gone another way.

    Stoke will be confident they can get a positive result at home to Sheffield Wednesday where a win would take them up to 50 points and almost certainly guarantee a place in the second tier for next season. Even a draw would leave the teams below them with an awful lot to do to overhaul the Potters.

    One slight concern is the presence of promotion-chasing Leeds and Sheffield United on the fixture list - two excellent sides with a need for points of their own.

    The worst-case scenario for Stoke would see them heading into a final day clash at a Derby side also fighting the drop and needing points to stay up.

    That's the kind of drama and tension every fanbase would rather avoid but that victory in South Wales gives Stoke every chance to have it all wrapped up with their supporters' fingernails still very much intact.