Saturday 23 December 2017 19:47, UK
Mark Hughes was delighted with the performance of his team as they secured a vital 3-1 victory over West Brom at the Bet365 Stadium.
First half goals from Joe Allen and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting gave Stoke a 2-0 half-time lead before Ramadan Sobhi netted in second-half injury time to cancel out Salomon Rondon's strike for the visitors.
West Brom piled the pressure on in the second half before Stoke scored their third on the counter-attack and Hughes acknowledged that his team rode their luck at times.
"It's a big result for us. We were aware of the pressure that's been building on us and last week we weren't able to get the job done because we got a stage where we chasing the game and were vulnerable," he said.
"Today was a different story, I thought we were excellent from start to finish. We changed things around a bit, obviously without Erik Pieters we had no real obvious choice to play left back but Kevin Wimmer came in and did really well.
"Our general play was excellent, we really took the game to West Brom and they found it difficult to keep us at arm's length for long periods. We went in at 2-0 at half-time and it was fully deserved from my point of view.
"We've had too many games of late where we've gone behind and that changes how you approach things and unfortunately, we've been picked off a number of times when we've tried to get back into games so today was different as went in front and then defended our lead very well.
"Maybe we were due a bit of luck. Jack Butland made a fantastic save at the end of the first half to protect our lead and we had good moments where we were a bit fortunate but that's what you need. You can't win football games without a modicum of luck. Maybe that's a sign that things are changing somewhat."
There has been plenty of speculation regarding Hughes' position at the club following a run of just one win in eight Premier League games prior to West Brom's visit.
It had even been reported that Hughes would be sacked if they lost the game but he reiterated his stance post-match by stating that he retains the faith of the club's chairman Peter Coates.
"A lot of the noise surrounding us was outside the vicinity of this place," he said. "This club is really strong, I've got fantastic support from the owners and all week they've been in, encouraging everybody. They've got trust in us and hopefully we've given something back."
