Steven Schumacher is adamant that Stoke City are not far away from being a good Championship team as they showed character and quality to come back from 2-0 down to draw with play-off hopefuls West Brom.
Stoke were kicking themselves for falling two behind just before the hour mark in a game where they had been creating good chances and had nearly two thirds of possession.
But rather than it being a case of same old story at the bet365 Stadium of a team that can’t take its own opportunities and gives them up too easily at the other end, they fought back to draw 2-2 thanks to goals from Million Manhoef and Andre Vidigal.
Schumacher had hinted in his pre-match press conference that he could see encouraging underlying signs about Stoke’s attacking processes – with the caveat that they need to be more clinical – and this was a performance to back that up.
He said: “I don’t think we’re too far away from being a good team – we’re probably just missing that clinical edge at the top end of the pitch. That’s something we’re aware of and something we’re trying do something about.
“The way we want to play, the players we’ve got at the club and the way we create chances, suits us. That has to continue. Players can’t lose faith in it if it doesn’t always go your own way. You have to keep believing.
“If you keep getting into dangerous areas you have to rely on one of your players taking one of those chances and thankfully Million did that. He got into a really good area after a good move, stuck it away. After that we work hard and get a penalty and we’re back in the game. We have to keep going and keep believing in what we’re trying to do.”
Stoke had come from 1-0 down to draw at home with Huddersfield on Monday and a second comeback draw keeps them 18th and four points above the bottom three heading into last five matches of the season.
