Butland plea for boo boys to be patient

JACK BUTLAND insists big-spending Stoke City will live up to their billing as promotion favourites despite suffering another Championship reality check. The Potters were well beaten in their opening game at Leeds and they would have suffered a second straight defeat had it not been for their England goalkeeper. Butland pulled off a string of saves to earn Stoke their first point of the season. But that did not stop disgruntled supporters booing their side off at the end and new manager Gary Rowett admitted his players need to ‘wake up’. Stoke made seven summer signings in an effort to make an immediate return to the Premier League. Butland said: ‘We’ve had late arrivals, either signings or players coming back from the World Cup, but a lot of clubs are dealing with that, so I don’t think that can be used as an excuse. We have to adapt quickly. ‘But it is a long season and there are a hell of a lot of games left. We are far too good individually and collectively to not be near the top.’ Asked about the fans’ jeers, Butland (right) said: ‘I can understand it, but there is stuff to cheer about as well, so they need to stick with it. We know we haven’t hit the heights but we need them with us all season.’ Butland was linked with Chelsea before the FA Cup holders signed Kepa Arrizabalaga on deadline day for £71million, a world-record fee for a goalkeeper. The transfer speculation seemed to affect Butland in Stoke’s chastening loss to Leeds. However, he was back to his best against impressive Brentford. Even though Stoke took the lead, the visitors were never out of the game. Butland’s opposite number, Dan Bentley, got in a horrible mix-up with defender Chris Mepham just before the half-hour to gift Benik Afobe his second goal in as many matches. But Stoke hopes of marking Rowett’s first home match in charge with victory were dashed by Ollie Watkins’ superb equaliser in the 66th minute. ‘Just because they’ve come down from the Premier League, it doesn’t mean they are going to have an easy ride and automatically go up,’ said Bentley. ‘These boys are a scalp for everybody. They are a big club with a big fan base. Their fans made a lot of noise, but we ignored that.’