Away victory was superb, but now Potters must build

FOR Stoke City to have gone unbeaten in their five away matches so far this season is quite an achievement. And it’s an achievement which is even more remarkable because they’ve yet to concede a goal on their travels this term. That record is obviously there to be shot at and will come to an end at some point.

But it’s a good indication of the progress they are making under Michael O’neill.

Don’t underestimate the weekend win at Luton, either. OK, Luton are not the biggest club in the Championship, but Kenilworth Road is a tough place to get a result.

It’s a tight ground and Luton - under old Stoke boss Nathan Jones - have started the season impressively after their last-gasp escape from the drop in the previous campaign. Stoke now have the ideal chance to build and get their home season up and running.

They’ve not won at home in the league yet, but tonight’s visit of Barnsley and Saturday’s game against Brentford at the bet365 Stadium are big opportunities.

You would be backing the Potters to take a decent amount of points from those two fixtures in a normal season - with 20,000-odd Stoke fans roaring them on.

But that’s not the case this season with matches taking place behind closed doors. Stoke will miss their fans, but I’m confident that the home form will come good in the very near future. Early-season form can often be tricky to predict and there’s some teams who are expected to challenge for promotion who haven’t kicked off in the fashion they would have hoped. Stoke will be pretty happy with their lot. Yes, it’s still early, but being towards the right end of the table doesn’t half make you feel better than if you are struggling for wins. Tonight’s game will see Angus Gunn in the Stoke squad for the first time since his transfer deadlineday loan move from Southampton.

The Potters needed to bring in another keeper after allowing Jack Butland to move to Crystal Palace. It was probably the right time for Butland to take on a new challenge. At one point, Jack was being hailed as one of the best goalkeepers Stoke have ever had.

But you start conceding a few goals - and making the odd mistake - and things do start to slide for you. Jack then lost his place

- and it makes it doubly difficult when the bloke who comes in seizes his chance.

Adam Davies has been in sparkling form, so it made sense for Jack to open a new chapter in his career. The arrival of Gunn is good business by Michael O’neill.

There was the obvious need to bring in another keeper, so to land someone who has represented England all the way through the age groups is a bit of a coup. Gunn will provide big competition for Davies and that can only raise the standards between them. Still, it is sad to see Butland’s Stoke career end how it has, with him sat on the bench and with not much chance of playing regularly.

He will have known himself that his time at Stoke was probably coming to a conclusion, he won’t have needed Michael to have told him that.

He’s not the first and certainly won’t be the last player to be in that position. You know yourself if things are not as easy as you once found them and you’re not performing at the level you expect to be at.

I’m sure Jack and Michael sat down and both agreed that it was best for both parties if they shook hands and moved on.

Jack will still have aspirations of playing for England again and to do that he needs regular firstteam football. Hopefully he will get that down at Palace.

All eyes are now on Gunn to see if he can dislodge Davies from that number one jersey.

But the form Davies is currently in, it’s going to be a big task for the new Potters stopper.