O’NEILL AIMING TO BREAK NEW GROUND WITH POTTERS WHEN MILLWALL VISIT
STOKE City are bidding to finally get the three-wins-in-a-row monkey off their back as Michael O’neill searches for the consistency required to plan a promotion push.
Stoke go into today’s home clash with Gary Rowett’s Millwall on the back of wins over Derby County and away at Bristol City – but know all too well it has been five years since the club made it three on the spin.
O’neill looks at that momentum – and perhaps the quality in depth in key areas needed for it – as the missing ingredient he wants to add next season.
“We just try to win the next game, it’s as simple as that,” said the manager.
“The hardest thing in this league is consistency, we’ve found that ourselves.
“When we look at 19 clean sheets this season and that’s where we feel a little bit aggrieved. With that number we should be better off in terms of points than we are at this minute in time.
“Unfortunately we’ve not had enough at the top end of the pitch, whether it’s been through injuries to key players or in key games we haven’t found that killer touch. We haven’t had enough 1-0 wins, for example.
“I think there’s a lot for us to be positive about at this minute in time and we want to finish the season as strongly as possible.”
O’neill set a target of 20 league clean sheets for the season a couple of weeks ago, but Stoke have since kept three in a row to take it to 19 with seven games remaining – two shy of a club record.
The tightening up has followed a return to three at the back and Stoke must weigh up when to use that system as Plan A.
“Hopefully we’ll raise that clean sheet target,” said O’neill, whose side are 11th in the Championship, behind 10th-placed Millwall by one on goal difference but eight points adrift of the top six.
“It’s good for Adam (Davies) coming in because he’s kept three clean sheets and I think it’s helped us playing with a back three.
“We lost the game prior to that at Middlesbrough 3-0 and how we lost by that margin I’ll never know, we had a lot of control and dominance in that game, but sometimes you have to give some of that up and be a bit more solid in terms of having an extra defender.
“That’s something for us to evaluate as a coaching staff to see what we feel the best system is for the players we have available for each individual game.”
He added: “I think sometimes people talk about the play-offs way too early in the season to be honest.
“We had a spell around Christmas where everyone was talking about the play-offs – not us, but people around it – and we ended up drawing too many games. We drew six out of seven games.
“That’s where it becomes a little bit difficult. We’ve had to get out of that habit.
“But we’ve had a good reaction to that. I think the players reacted well to that disappointment and we want to win as many games as we can between now and the end of the season.”
Stoke are expected to be unchanged from the win on Friday, where Jordan Thompson returned from international duty with Northern Ireland to impress in a two-man midfield with John Obi Mikel.
O’neill said: “I thought he was brilliant. He was disappointed he didn’t play in the qualifying games, he didn’t start in Italy or against Bulgaria because he’s been playing very well for us.
“Him and John play well together in there actually.
“It’s a natural right and left side with the two of them playing in there and I know John likes playing with him.
“Against Bristol City I thought he showed great energy as well and showed his quality on the ball.
“He’s a player who’s had a strong season for us. It’s his first full season in the Championship and there’s more to come.”