Stoke City boss went to Derby County to watch Preston North End – this is his verdict ahead of Deepdale clash
Stoke City manager Mark Robins always anticipates a difficult match against Preston North End and Saturday is no different.
The Potters provide the next test for Paul Heckingbottom’s side, who head into the game sitting 14th and looking to bounce back from Wednesday night’s disappointing 2-0 loss at Derby County. Robins, who was appointed by Stoke on New Year’s Day, was in attendance at Pride Park.
His side are right in and among the relegation scrap, but head into this weekend’s game on the back of a vital victory over QPR last weekend. Stoke will be backed by four thousand away supporters in the Bill Shankly Kop and Robins wants to see his team stand up to North End on the day.
“Tough game, same as all of them are,” said Robins pre-match. “They’ve (PNE) been on a decent run of form. I went to see them on Wednesday at Derby County, in what was a difficult game. They controlled the game for large parts of it. Certainly, in the early stages.
“It was 0-0 at half time; they had a really good chance in the first half where (Milutin) Osmajic just didn’t take the ball with him. If he’d taken the ball with him then he was through on goal, 1v1 with the goalkeeper, but they managed to get back, force him wide and he hit the goalkeeper with it.
“But, they are a good side, a physical side and a team with good quality in it. They made five changes the other night; maybe they will make them again just to freshen things up. Whatever they do, they’ve got some good players.
“Nice, little movements they have as well, and Paul Heckingbottom is a really good manager. He’s done really well in his career, wherever he’s been. It’s a challenge for us. We are taking four thousand people and we’ve got to go and meet that challenge head on, and try to upset them on their own patch.”
“We will need to do things in a slightly different way…”
Two wins in their last three games – against the Rs and Blackburn Rovers – means Stoke head into the weekend two points clear of 22nd placed Cardiff City. While victory last time out was crucial and Robins believes his team are making positive strides, he views Saturday as a brand new test for the Potters.
“It’s a different game all together,” said Robins. “We will need to do things in a slightly different way, maybe. We cannot go too much away from what we are, so we’ll go into that full of optimism, hope and confidence, from last week’s performance hopefully.
“We’ve got to go and try to pick three points up, if we possibly can. It’s always a tough fixture against Preston because they are a really competitive team. We will have to be at our best in that sense but also in other ways as well – where we’ve been pretty good in the last few weeks.
