Pulis On Stoke Win

Head coach Tony Pulis has given his thoughts following victory over Stoke City this weekend.

Hosting his former side at The Hawthorns for the two one victory with goals coming from Stephane Sessegnon and a late Jonny Evans winner, Pulis was obviously pleased with the three points and as well as Evans in particular coming in for praise, the gaffer talked about what he felt was a swing in momentum for the club of late.

wba.co.uk have him quoted talking about the goalscorers on the day from his post game press conference.

‘He’s been a great signing for us. His quality in possession is first class. He slows things down for us and is more than just a good defender. We’ve played him at centre-half, left-back, in the centre of midfield – he’s done a good job in all of those.
He just oozes class. He’s a top, top player.’

As for Sess, he added.

‘Sess started slowly but warmed into the game. He’s a good player and it’s funny because this week I pulled him aside and told him he needs to score more goals. And we need more from him. It was a great win for us.’

The Birmingham Mail carry more from his after game interviews, and they have him quoted as saying that undoubtedly the red card in the game swung it in our favour – but he thoughts it was about time we had some luck.

He wouldn’t be overly drawn on Claudio Yacob’s attempt at an Oscar though.

‘We score and the momentum’s with us, then they score and you think it’s swung, especially last ten minutes, quarter of an hour. The sending off then affected the game again and it swung back in our favour.’

With James McClean and Salomon Rondon suspended, and Jonas Olsson and Victor Anichebe missing with injuries, Pulis felt it made the win even better.

‘We’re very very pleased because it’s a busy period and we’ve gone into today’s game without four players. McClean and Salomon Rondon, who have done fantastic for us, and Victor and Jonas. To put in a performance like we have today without four major players for us was fantastic. It was a great effort from the lads. Irrespective of whether it’s Stoke or anyone else it’s three points and back-to-back victories for us.’

Eventually a game will go by without Saido Berahino being a headline – this time because he was back on the bench and Pulis insisted it wasn’t punishment, it was just tactical and Sky Sports carry.

‘Saido has trained well and he was really disappointed I never started him today but I made the decision to go for Rick (Lambert). The way Stoke set up and work as a team, they don’t let teams in behind them at all, they drop off and there is certainly a little bit more space in front of their centre-halves than normal. So we thought Rick on the angles and into his feet – he’s a very good leader of the line – would be the ideal choice today. That’s what you do as a manager, you make decisions.’

Going back to the game itself, Pulis added.

‘Jon Walters came on, and he’s a great lad, a wonderful character but I could have killed him when he scored that goal. We kept going though and the second goal was worthy of the team that eventually deserved to win. We needed to win back-to-back games because losing the game to Bournemouth and not getting the result at Swansea that we deserved was disappointing. But the lads have come back and six points from the last two games is very, very good in a season where goodness knows what it’s going to take to stay up.’

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