Under-fire Hughes gutted by home loss
Defiant Stoke City boss Mark Hughes shrugged off boos from the fans after yesterday’s 1-0 defeat to Newcastle.
Ayoze Perez’s strike sank the Potters, who slipped to 16th place, just two points above the relegation zone.
Hughessaid:“Wearedisappointed to have lost the game because clearly we deserved to have taken something out of it. Things just aren’t going for us at the moment, this one wasn’t to be and it clearly wasn’t the result we were hoping for.
“A lot of this is down to our own making, some has been down to misfortune.
“That isn’t excuse making, it is the reality of things.
“They have come here and done us on the break late on, just after we had lost Erik Pieters to injury and were having to reshuffle.”
“We weren’t able to get guys over quick enough, they put the ball across and end up scoring the goal that wins them the game. “We had any number of chances to score ourselves though. I recall their keeper making three or four fantastic saves and there were plenty of otheropportunitiestoo.” Midfielder Charlie Adam admitted that Stoke are in a fight for survival.
The Scot said: “We’re in the mix now. We are down there fighting for survival, and we need to find some character to get us out of this mess.
“We need to stand up and be counted, because, as a group of players, we are the ones who have put ourselves in the situation we’re in.
“We have had four or five decent opportunities to get a goal, and, at the end of the day, we are where we are because we are too open, and we can’t defend at times.”