I am becoming something of a clairvoyant

Last updated : 18 September 2006 By Tony Scholes
I don't think the Stoke fans will be particularly interested in what either manager had to say after the game, they don't like ours and frankly right now they like their own manager even less.

Pulis saw the importance of Gray's goal. “The early goal from Burnley knocked us flat,” he said. “And for 45 minutes we didn't look as though we had anything about us although I think we improved in the second half.

“We gave young Paterson and Rooney a go and had a lot of the ball but it was without really hurting them or causing them enough problems. Even though we took the game to them we didn't look like creating anything until the last ten minutes of so. The difficult thing is to start that way because it gave them the impetus.”

Pulis then spoke about Sammy Bangoura, who played his first game of the season. He said: “I thought with the transfer window shutting and having two strikers missing it would give him the opportunity to show what he can do. It was the first time I've ever seen him play, people say he's capable of scoring goals, but he's got a kick and come off with an injury.”

It's difficult to work out what Pulis was doing or seeing last February when Plymouth played Stoke, Bangoura played the full ninety minutes that day.

Steve Cotterill was happy enough after the Clarets recorded a second win in four days and was even more pleased that he'd predicted a goal for Andy Gray ahead of the trip to the Windy City.

“I am becoming something of a clairvoyant,” he claimed. “I said Andy might get his rewards today and that's what has happened. Gifton did nothing different to what he did in midweek when he ended up with three goals and then got nothing here.

“To be fair, both of them are team players, they are not individual players like perhaps Steve Jones and Wade Elliott, and I thought that against Duberry and Hill, a very good central defensive pairing at this level, our two strikers handled it well.”

Looking at the game in general Cotterill added: “It was always going to be a hard fought win. Sometimes you look and hope you haven't scored too early, and thankfully that was not the case. We had asked the players to show early to keep the Stoke crowd quiet and they did that.

“The only disappointing aspect of the game is that we haven't been ruthless enough with our other chances. Other than that, I think it was a great away performance from us. Late on, you know you are going to come under a bombardment and we needed to stand up and be counted.

“Our players came here, stood up to be counted and we could have scored more goals in the second half. We are pleased with our performance and I don't feel it was back to the walls stuff in the second half. The last five minutes was the only time there was a scuffle in or around our penalty box.

“I thought we did well to win the first ball and get to the second on numerous occasions and were well worth or three points. Some of the ground covered by our players today, after three games in one week, was magnificent. This is a very hard, fit and competitive league and our energy levels were fantastic.”