One victory for Stoke City and Tony Pulis can smile

Stoke City’s manager, Tony Pulis, believes his side need one more win to secure Premier League safety.

Last Saturday’s 2-0 win at Queen’s Park Rangers brought relief, ending an eight-match run without a victory and putting Stoke just three points shy of the 40 Pulis believes will guarantee the club a sixth successive season in the top flight.

“We’ve been in a ‘must-win-game’ situation for the last three or four matches now,” Pulis said, ahead of Norwich City’s visit to the Britannia Stadium today.

“We have four to go and we need to get a result in one of those. The three points against QPR helped but we still need to get to 40 points, which has been the target from the beginning of the season. I personally think we will be safe with 40, and our goal difference is good, so that’s almost an extra point for us. The sooner we get to that then the more relaxed we will be, with a lot more smiles on people’s faces.”