Stoke looking to build on Anfield draw

Losing to Hartlepool in the FA Cup wasn´t ideal and it is always a bad moment when you know it´s over for another year. To be fair we did alright in the first half and it was one of those games when whoever scored first was going to win.

They got the goal just after half time and then caught us on the counter. The gaffer had changed the team around a bit and to be fair we needed the game but it was tough conditions. The pitch was very hard and bumpy and it was difficult to play the ball on the ground. But it was also windy and sunny so once the ball went in the air it was tough too. That´s what the Cup is all about.

The Premiership is proving as tough as we thought it would, but I´m confident that we can get ourselves into a safe position. What seems to happen when you´re in the Premier League is that you get a block of really tough fixtures. I reckon if we can put January behind us in the last few months of the season we have some decent fixtures that we fancy getting some points from.

We´ve looked particularly good at home and we´re turning the Britannia into a bit of a fortress. The fans make a lot of noise and it can be very intense and if we can keep that going we should be alright.

There are a lot of clubs in and around us that we can beat and when you look at the table there´s only five points between us and tenth place. If you think about where you are in the league it can be a bit depressing but in points terms it´s nothing.

We face Liverpool tomorrow and after getting a 0-0 draw at Anfield there is every chance we can go one better at home. We played really well at Liverpool and although we didn´t have a lot of the ball we defended brilliantly. We stopped them playing and that´s important when you´re up against a side with so much talent at Liverpool. It looks like Fernando Torres will be back to face us which is a double-edged sword. He´s a great player and you want to face footballers of that quality. But, having said that right at the moment I´d be quite happy if he was still out. But there´s not a lot of point talking about one or two Liverpool players as they have world class players right through the team. They´ll probably fancy their chances but at our place anything could happen.

This is what it´s all about being in the Premiership, this is why we got promoted. There´s no point complaining about playing the likes of Liverpool when it´s part and parcel of being in the best league in the world.

Matthew Etherington joined us this week from West Ham and I think he´ll be a big asset to the club. We don´t have a lot of width at the moment and he can add that. He´s got pace and can take on full-backs, so I think it´s a good move.

We aren´t in the best position at the moment but a couple of back-to-back wins and we could shoot up the league.