Under-fire Hughes insists he’s the right man for the job
DEFIANT Mark Hughes insisted he is still the right man to lead Stoke despite coming under fire for the selection gamble that backfired. Fans called for his head following yesterday’s home defeat by Newcastle, 48 hours after the Welshman rested players in a 5-0 battering at Chelsea ahead of the more winnable fixture. Asked about his future, Hughes replied: ‘Who else is going to do it? In terms of knowledge of the group and the progress in my time here, I’m the best person to do it. ‘It doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is the team needs to be doing better. It’s difficult times at the moment, so we’ve just got to stick our chests out and get on with it.’ Hughes was frustrated by persistent questions about his team selection at Stamford Bridge and cut short his post-match press conference. ‘Everyone’s saying I gambled but I used the players I had,’ he added. ‘What was I going to do? Risk players that had a big part to play today? If I had won, it would have been great management.’ Up in the stands, Stoke chairman Peter Coates looked on stonyfaced. He kept faith with Hughes when some fans called for his head after defeat to West Ham here a fortnight ago. But the chants were more vociferous this time. Yet there was a degree of bad luck surrounding Newcastle’s winner on 73 minutes. An injury to Erik Pieters forced Hughes to send on ineffective striker Saido Berahino for the Dutchman and switch Kevin Wimmer to left-back. When Jacob Murphy advanced down that side two minutes later, he saw the extra space and accelerated away from Charlie Adam. Murphy crossed into the path of Ayoze Perez, who met it first-time on the edge of the six-yard box with a stab of his right foot.