We'll see where it takes us

Tony Pulis has seen Stoke beaten twice on the road since they last played at the Windy City and will be looking to get back to winning ways. "Shouting and hollering at players doesn't work if you do it too often," Pulis said, "and this group is a good group that doesn't need that anyway.

For whatever reason, we weren't at our best at QPR on Sunday, but we'll just go through the video looking at one or two incidents that could have been better. I've told the players we can lose the next two or three games and still get automatic promotion."

He believes that being back at home could be crucial. "I want our supporters to give us the best chance," added Pulis. "If we get 20,000 in it's a different atmosphere and a different prospect for the opposition. No place rocks like this place when we get 20,000 in."

Owen Coyle knows only too well that many more defeats will see our hopes of a play off place come to an end and he needs his side to go to Stoke and get a result. "It is important that we react to the Hull game positively and show people what we are all about," he said.

"Going to Stoke on Saturday is probably the toughest game in the Championship. They have got good players and a physical edge to their game and all credit to them. Stoke have spent an awful lot of money and are trying to reap the rewards for that.

"I think my first game in charge was against Stoke back in November, we got a 0-0 draw and I thought we could have won that day. We'll go there looking to come out and reach the standards that we have set previously. That's the beauty of football, when you have underachieved and not performed to your level, football gives you the opportunity to go and redress that.

"We have a very difficult game and outside the nucleus of the club I don't think people will be expecting us to go to Stoke and win. We feel though if we play to our best then we can achieve a good result and that's how we'll treat it."

He has admitted that we cannot continue to make mistakes in the way we have been doing. "Even when you don't start games well, you are still in with a chance at 0-0 and we cannot go on gifting teams goals as we did at Hull because then you are chasing the game. We'll take our medicine and look to bounce back in a positive manner.

"It is important that we bounce back and then we have two home games coming after that. I think we will be in a better position after the Wolves game to know where we are going to feature.

"The Championship fluctuates from week to week because there are some very good teams with not a lot to choose between them. Equally you will probably have seven or eight teams still thinking they can make fifth or sixth place in those play off positions and we will be one of them.

"We have to make sure we are performing to our best and if we can do that we'll see where it takes us."