“I asked their lads what their overall emotion was and they said disappointment. Mine was of pride. To be honest I thought they gave me everything they had. They kept in the game, first-half and obviously I asked the lads to do a lot physically to get into positions to try and stop. Then obviously to get our two goals in the second-half was good and I thought our play was a lot better, second-half. We broke really well on the counter-attack, especially. And we had pockets of play and then, in fairness to Stoke, I thought they more than deserved their two goals and created enough chances to get a point.
“I think a point, if you’d have asked me before the game if I’d take a point, obviously I would have. The way it sort of ended has disappointed the lads more than anything else. It wasn’t to hang on as such, we just didn’t defend to the end."
“I say it all the time but they really are a dressing room full of amazing human beings. They want to do well all the time, they want to do well for the club and the town. At the moment I think they’re making everyone really proud of them.”
“In fairness I thought when Zak Vyner came on at centre-half, he was excellent, I just think it just wasn’t ideal at the time because there was a bit of a pause and delay. Maybe the lads lost their concentration for a couple of minutes after and then the goal came in. The cross came through Willo’s legs which was a bit unfortunate but I can’t complain because it wasn’t against the run of play, I thought they deserved the goal they got."
“Woody’s done his groin, he doesn’t know how bad it is yet but, hopefully, he won’t be out for a period of time because I’ve got an ever-growing injury list unfortunately. Hopefully he can play a part on Wednesday night (against Bristol City) but it doesn’t look that optimistic.”