Hughes: First win was only a matter of time

Mark Hughes has insisted his Stoke City team knew it was just “a matter of time” before their first Premier League win of the season arrived.

Stoke had been winless heading into their home clash against fellow strugglers Sunderland, but a Joe Allen brace got them up and running.

And Hughes is now looking forward to building on this result with a favourable run of fixtures in the coming weeks.

“Obviously there’s a little bit of pressure because of our position in the league, but we know we’re a good group,” he told Stoke City Player.

“We’ve got good confidence, good trust, and we knew it was only a matter of time before we got the first win. We got it today and we’ve now got a run of games to have a real go at and see where it takes us.

“Hopefully, [our position] at the end of this period will be a true reflection of the quality we have in this squad.”