CHARLIE: WE NEED TO BE UP AND ADAM

CHARLIE ADAM has a warning for his Stoke City team-mates: Fight – or you’ll be found out.

The ex-Scotland star (right) claims working, not shirking, will have to be the mantra over the next four months as the Potters battle to stay in the top flight.

Adam questioned his colleagues, saying some were “mentally weak” after a week in which Mark Hughes was shown the door, following Stoke’s FA Cup exit to League Two high-fliers Coventry City.

The midfielder said: “We are capable of escaping, but we’re also in a dogfight.

“Whoever doesn’t roll their sleeves up is going to be found out. We know that our performances haven’t been to the level we, or the previous manager, expected. We feel we have underachieved. As a group of players we have to look at ourselves and ask, ‘Could we have done more?’ The answer has to be, ‘Yes.’ “It’ll be of no consolation to the last gaffer, but the best way to prove him right is to put on a show – to show that his methods would work. We owe him that at least. So the senior players in the squad need to step up and ram home this point.”

Adam is under no illusions that of the 16 Premier League matches the Potters have left, tomorrow’s test at Old Trafford is one of the toughest of all.

The former Liverpool playmaker, 32, added: “Coming away with something from Manchester United is always a tough ask, but that won’t faze us.”