We’re up for the fight

POTTERS WON’T GIVE IN VOWS BOSS

PAUL LAMBERT is confident that his Stoke players won’t buckle under the pressure of the relegation dogfight.

The Potters are chasing two wins from their last two games to give themselves a chance of clambering out of the Premier League’s bottom three.

Today’s clash with Crystal Palace is a mustwin game, taking them into a potentially explosive do-or-die last-day showdown with Swansea.

And Lambert says he won’t even have to tell his players the kind of battle that lies ahead.

If he can help drag them clear, the Stoke boss believes it will rank up there personally with him winning the Champions League as a player for German side Borussia Dortmund in 1997.

Lambert said: “There’s no way to downplay it but as a footballer you thrive on that.

“I don’t think you buckle under it. You thrive on it and grab the opportunity.

“Yes, it’s massive, huge. There’s no getting away from it – it’s a must-win game and we must bring our ‘A’ game to the party.”

Lambert doesn’t rule out a frenzied affair, with his side having to lob grenades over the trenches and get in among the muck and bullets.

He added: “We have to go for it. There has never been a game since I’ve been here where we have sat off and allowed the opposition time on the ball – even the games where we have lost.

“We have to win. I can’t gift-wrap it up any other way, regardless of how we do it.

“Yes, we need our big players but we need everybody to step up. I don’t think there’s any room for carrying anybody.

“We need everybody to step up and realise it’s a must-win at all costs.”

Lambert says the only thing that surprises him since taking over is the fact that Stoke are down there fighting for their lives in the first place.

He said: “If you’d asked me if I thought Stoke would have been in this position at the start of the season, I’d have said, ‘No. Absolutely no chance’.

“But you never know from the outside. From the outside looking in, you thought there could be no way Stoke could be in this position.

“Everything depends on these games. We just have to take it to the last day now and make sure that game is not a dead rubber.”