Mark Robins gives credit to Stoke players after first win of season
irishnews.com · Press Association Sport Staff · 2026-09-01T22:24:56+00:00 · nguồn gốc
Stoke manager Mark Robins said his team were “galvanised” after the Potters picked up their first win of the season against Norwich.
Ethan Galbraith scored the only goal of the game as Stoke claimed their first league win of the season and just their fourth in 24 league games, a run that stretches back to January.
Robins changed to a three-at-the-back formation following Saturday’s 4-1 defeat by Wolves, and claimed his team deserved great credit.
He said: “I think you’ve seen the team galvanised, and they deserve an enormous amount of credit because we’ve not had the chance to work on a great deal.
“We’ve worked it, we’ve looked at things, not had too much chance to practise it, but I thought they stuck to the task pretty well.
“Let’s face it, they had miles more of the ball but we know in this division it doesn’t make any difference how much of the ball you have, so if you can’t use the ball well enough then so what?
“But we are better than we have shown, and we tried to be better in the games that we’ve lost. This season we’ve started with three really difficult games.
“They deserve an enormous amount of credit because of the pressure around. Nobody’s getting carried away, it’s three points, but the manner of the performance and the way the supporters got behind the players was brilliant, and they really deserved that.”
Robins was also full of praise for match-winner Galbraith.
He added: “He was really good and he’s still not quite there yet. There’s still more to come from him. He was out for a while before he came and he needed to get up to speed.
“He’s not had enough game time so playing in these games and doing that, you can see that he’s starting to get there. I can’t praise him enough.”
Norwich boss Philippe Clement claimed his team dominated the game and needed an extra bit of luck to pick up their second win of the season.
The Belgian explained: “I think all game we were the dominant team, the best team on the ball, the team getting the best chances.
“But you lose a game on a transition moment, and there were a few other transition moments that we defended really well.
“You need to win these games, and you need a little bit of luck in football, that’s the case. For us, it’s the job to prepare the team well so that we can be dominant, that we can create the most chances, that we can have most of the ball, but that’s less important in general.
“In football you can also win games by having the best chances (while) having less possession.
“The possession difference was really big today, the creation of chances with Stoke was really big today, but they get the three points in the end and they are the cruel things that happen in football.
“One of those days, and frustrating, but you need to make a good analysis. I was very disappointed, close to angry, after our Millwall game because we didn’t show our identity, we didn’t play a good game or deserve the points, that was clear.
“Every neutral supporter will say that Norwich had to win this game, that’s clear.
“You need to praise their goalkeeper also. He played a really good game with several good saves, so he played a really strong game and that stopped us also.”