Argyle v Stoke City

Plymouth Argyle face another tough game on Saturday when third placed Stoke City travel to Home Park.

Argyle occupy sixth spot in the Championship but will have to be at their best to beat a Stoke side who are unbeaten in their last 8 games and have picked up 11 points from their last five away games and indeed have lost just two away games all season.

Former Argyle manager Tony Pulis has turned the Stoke team into a hard working outfit who rely on team shape and organisation to overcome opponents.

Before playing successive away games at Barnsley and Plymouth, Pulis complained about the long trips over the holiday period, he said: ‘Whoever plans these games wants shooting.
‘Everyone is talking up the Championship and wanting bigger crowds … so they send us to Barnsley and Plymouth.
‘If we’d played West Brom on Boxing Day and Wolves on New Year’s Day you’d be talking about 50,000 in total if they were at our place.’

Pulis continued: ‘They are making a mockery of trying to make the Championship a better league.
‘How does going to Barnsley and then Plymouth suit our supporters? It’s a travesty really and it’s up to our chairman and others in the league to prevent this from happening again.
‘We’ve got something like five days in hotels over Christmas, but that’s what we’re paid to do.’

Argyle boss Paul Sturrock is likely to make a couple of changes for the Stoke game with striker Rory Fallon and midfielder Lee Martin returning to the team. Martin was on-loan at Stoke last season and will be eager to beat his former team.

Ahead of the game we get the inside news on Stoke City from Chris the editor at Stoke Vital.

Q: What do you think the score will be on Saturday?
A: A tough game but we’ll settle for 1-1.

Q: What style of play do Stoke City use?
A: We seem to have a reputation for ‘direct’ football, but there’s definitely more skill in evidence this season.

Q: Which Stoke players should Argyle fans watch out for and why?
A: Ricardo Fuller and Liam Lawrence have both scored hat-tricks in the last two games. On loan Man United player, Ryan Shawcross has scored 6 even though he’s technically a defender.

Q: Argyle have been accused of over-achieving this season, can the same comment be applied to Stoke?
A: Not really, we’ve been in the play-off zone for the last three Christmas periods, but not done so well in the second half of the season. This time around we’re hoping that we can keep it up through to May.

Q: What do you think of your manager Tony Pulis?
A: There’s always going to be that minority who never accept him – even he gets us promoted. But whatever you think of his style of management – he’s paid by results and he gets results. Personally, I think he’s a good manager.

Q: Are you happy with your chairman and board of directors?
A: Chairman, Peter Coates has backed the manager and given him money to spend. As he owns Bet365, he’s well aware of the need to ‘speculate to accumulate’ and seems prepared to make some serious investment this time around.

Q: From a Stoke City fans point of view – what do you think of Plymouth Argyle and manager Paul Sturrock?
A: I used to believe that it was not a good thing for managers to return to clubs. I said as much when TP came back, but I’ve been proved wrong, so let’s hope he does OK for you.

Q: Who has been the best team and worst team you’ve played this season?
A: Best team was West Brom last week and worst was QPR.

Q: Can you give us any inside news on Stoke?
A: Don’t bother marking Ric Fuller, he couldn’t hit the target from a yard out!