Exclusive: Concerning Stoke City “worry” raised as relegation fears grow

Exclusive: Concerning Stoke City “worry” raised as relegation fears grow

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman has revealed his “worry” for Stoke City and believes Mark Robins’ side will have to “dig deep” to avoid relegation to League One in the remainder of the current campaign.

It has been yet another bitterly disappointing term in the Potteries, with Stoke finding themselves in real danger of suffering relegation from the Championship despite the mid-season appointment of Robins.

The ex-Coventry City boss took over following Narcis Pelach’s brief, ill-fated spell in charge but has been unable to lead the Potters up the table so far. Stoke were defeated by Millwall on Saturday afternoon through a contentious 94th-minute penalty from Mihailo Ivanovic, which consigned them to their fifth league defeat in the last seven matches.

Heading into this month’s international break, Stoke are in 20th place but are only separated from Derby County in 22nd by a single point, while the Rams also boast a superior goal difference amid a drastic upturn in recent form under John Eustace.

EFL Championship relegation battle, correct as of March 17
Position	Team	P	GD	Pts
17th	Portsmouth	38	-15	42
18th	Oxford United	38	-16	42
19th	Hull City	38	-8	41
20th	Stoke City	38	-14	39
21st	Cardiff City	38	-20	39
22nd	Derby County	38	-11	38
23rd	Luton Town	38	-26	35
24th	Plymouth Argyle	38	-37	33

Stoke, along with the likes of Derby, Cardiff, Hull City and Oxford United, are in the midst of a relegation dogfight and have suffered unfortunate luck in recent weeks, but may now need the pendulum to begin swinging in their favour ahead of a daunting end-of-season run-in.

Don Goodman reveals Stoke City relegation worry

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, Goodman made little secret of his concerns for Robins’ side. Goodman believes Stoke’s poor luck is a “worry”, and he fears how Robins can turn it around with so few games to spare of the season.

“It’s really tough at the minute for Stoke City and Mark Robins,” Goodman explained to FLW.

“If you look at the last three games in isolation, he goes back to his former club Coventry City, his team play really well and they concede a 90+7th minute goal that’s subsequently proven to have been offside.

“They lose that game, they get a great win in the next game at home to Blackburn and then on Saturday against Millwall, they concede a 94th minute penalty that was never a penalty in a million years and lose that one.

“Things at the minute are just not quite going their way, and that makes me worry a little bit for them.

“They have got Burnley next, Watford, West Brom, QPR and Sunderland, it’s a tough run of fixtures. They’ve even got Leeds to play, so they are going to have to really dig deep if they’re going to survive.”

Stoke City must capitalise on Luton Town, Cardiff City, Derby County fixtures

As Goodman alludes to, Stoke have a difficult run of fixtures to contend with before the season is up if they want to secure their Championship status for another year.

However, they have three relegation six-pointers to contest too, with fixtures against Luton, Cardiff and Derby to be played out. The importance of avoiding dropping points in those affairs simply cannot be understated, and they may fancy their chances against Luton in particular.