Crouch backs under-fire Pulis

Stoke City striker Peter Crouch has urged the club to stick with manager Tony Pulis through their run of poor form.

Pulis took charge at Stoke for the second time in 2006 and has guided the club to the English Premier League and an FA Cup final appearance.

Despite that success, a recent spell of just one win in 11 matches and difficulty scoring goals has led to some disquiet among the club’s supporters.

“What the gaffer has achieved over nearly seven years, first and foremost in getting the club up and then staying in the Premier League for so long, is immense,” Crouch told the Sunday Mirror.

“We are going through a sticky spell at the moment, but we have had that before and always come through it, we will again.

“I would call it a blip and I think it is important to know the difference between that and a real problem.”

Crouch believes the willingness of key players to repeatedly sign new contracts is testament to their happiness with life under Pulis at Britannia Stadium.

“You can look at the squad and season on season it is always better than the year before, and players are happy to sign new contracts, because they can feel the club is always moving forward,” he said.

“That’s credit to the manager for persuading people to sign contracts, and it is credit especially to the chairman who has been fantastic with the investment he has made in the squad.

“But it doesn’t matter what a chairman does or what a manager says, if players sense things are not right they will always move.

“That hasn’t happened here, and it tells you that the feeling within the group of players is that we can still do a lot more.”