Tony Pulis remains keen for new signings despite Stoke climbing to fourth place in the Championship.
Stoke boss eyes new arrivals
Stoke manager Tony Pulis remains keen for new signings despite his team climbing to fourth place in the Championship with a 2-1 win over Colchester.
Pulis has at least £4million available to recruit new players after the sale of Darren Higginbotham, Carl Hoefkens and Darel Russell.
He has previously admitted his frustrations at unsuccessful attempts to sign new players but he remains confident reinforcements will be on their way soon
However, Pullis was keen to praise his current players after goals from Ryan Shawcross Liam Lawrence were enough to secure the victory.
Success
"We have enquired about lots of players but for a number of reasons things haven't happened as yet. But we will keep looking and I'm sure we will be successful in the end," said Pulis.
"We knew it would be a tough week with away games at Leicester and West Brom and then playing Colchester. But the effort and commitment of the players had been first class and all credit to them.
"Dominic Matteo typified that spirit because he was at a friend's funeral the other day. I had to move him to centre-half to give us some experience there and he just got on with the job. His attitude since he joined us has been fantastic."
Colchester's Clive Platt had cancelled out Shawcross' opener, but when Lawrence hit home The U's were condemned to first defeat on the road this season and manager Geraint Williams admitted his disappointment
Disappointment
"I'm very disappointed," said Williams.
"We had spoken about Stoke being a big and physical side and I stressed the importance for us to make a strong start to the game. But Stoke were much brighter earlier on,"
"They won their battles and we conceded an early goal. We played better after that but you can't give teams in this league a goal start and that's something we must rectify.
"I don't go shouting off about it, but I hate losing. I've got a lovely bunch of lads in the dressing room but they have got to start games on the front foot and be a bit more aggressive."
