JACK KEEN TO HEAP PRAISE ON DEFENCE FOR CLEAN SHEET

JACK Butland is happy to share any plaudits with Stoke City’s defence if they are giving him a chance to be a hero. Butland emerged from a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest as a contender for man of the match for the third game and third clean sheet in a row. His brilliant save from Joe Lolley’s shot from the edge of the box and one-on-one saves to deny Lewis Grabban won him applause from both managers and sets of fans. But he insisted: “It’s my job. We brought a little bit of pressure on ourselves in the second half, but we’re limiting to the kind of opportunities when I can make an impact. “Early on in the season we were perhaps a little bit wide open and you feel a bit helpless at times, but if it’s a one-v-one it’s something I can affect or if it’s a shot from distance, it’s one that I can affect, it hasn’t been getting cut open and tap-ins. “That’s a real positive from how our season has changed. It gives me an opportunity to affect games and try to keep the ball out. “It was difficult in the early part of the season when we were a little bit exposed, but as a team we’ve been really good at limiting opportunities. There have been moments late in games, but not too many glaring chances. “Ryan (Shawcross) made a good block at the end of the first half and we are giving ourselves a chance to make blocks and make saves.” It was a game of few chances until the closing stages when Peter Crouch and Saido Berahino were both set up for Stoke and Butland was called into action at the other end. The keeper said: “In the end the game opens up because of the nature of the league and it gets to a point when everyone is going for it, but for 75 minutes we were in control and we’ve got to do more to find opportunities and be a bit braver in the final third. “Again there are plenty of positive signs from a defensive standpoint. You know things are going to open up and it’s about grinding it out. We’re still playing well and keeping clean sheets.” Yet Stoke might have been given a hand if Costel Pantilimon had been sent off for taking down Benik Afobe in the first half. “The boys looked adamant,” said Butland. “I’d have been upset if he’d gone down and didn’t need to and Benik is an honest lad. “He was adamant he was fouled.” THERE was a moment in the second half when Jack Butland passed to Ryan Woods on the edge of the Stoke box despite Woods being surrounded by three opponents. His pockets were pinched and Lewis Grabban should have taken advantage.

But perhaps Butland had also done just about enough to put off the forward? He did it again a couple more times to secure a fifth clean sheet in seven games. Big and brave, the kind of presence that earned tentative comparisons with Peter Schmeichel during his breakthrough year at Stoke in 2015/16.

Schmeichel set the standard when dealing with one-on-ones with a technique that basically scared the bejesus out of any striker who had the audacity to run towards his goal.

Butland made a spectacular save too, diving to his right to turn away a shot from Joe Lolley.

That’s three second-halves in a row when the England keeper has been a gamedefining influence, stepping up when needed. That’s earned five points. He hasn’t let in a first-half goal since September.

He’ll be kicking himself for that pass to Woods but no one will quibble too much if he’s not letting anything past.

SHOULD FOREST HAVE BEEN DOWN TO 10 MEN?

IT might have been the way Benik Afobe hit the deck that stopped an immediate consensus after Costel Pantilimon raced out in that first-half one-on-one.

Afobe leaped as Pantilimon lunged. Gary Rowett said he had to leap high because Pantilimon is 6ft 9in, former Vale boss Michael Brown – on pundit duty for Quest – said he had to leap because if he hadn’t he might have had a leg broken.

The reaction ended up looking theatrical. Referee Oliver Langford said Afobe had jumped out of the way so no foul, no card for either man.

Stoke got the rub of the green with an offside goal to beat Swansea, but they’re probably still behind where they should on big calls going in their favour.

So yes, grumbles are understandable, but they still need to make the margins work themselves; to force home shots that are cleared off the line or take advantage of close-range headers.

WHAT DO STOKE NEED TO MAKE THE TOP SIX?

IT normally takes a pointshaul in the mid-to-late 70s to make the play-offs in the Championship. This season, the pace suggests it will take 76 points to make the top six and 84 for automatic promotion.

Stoke are currently averaging 1.3 points per game, which would take them to about 60 – or 1.5 since Ryan Woods made his first start and the season really started to get going. If they keep up that momentum they’d end on 66.

So basically, they need to get up to top two form (1.8 points per game) to reach 75 points – or 2.1 points per game to make a dash for the actual top two.

Not many would argue they couldn’t match anyone in the division home or away but to catch up they’ve got to do better than match.

Good draws have got to be turned into tight wins – or a terrific run can ease the burden on the rest of the season.

On that score, three out of the next four games running up to mid-december are at home and the other is away at struggling Reading. Can Stoke take advantage of the platform they have laid over the last few weeks by winning four winnable games in a row?

Strikers have to take half chances and be ruthless with good ones, midfielders have to get on the scoresheet, the defence needs to stay resolute.

If they can’t, January is around the corner.

THREE CLEAN SHEETS IN A ROW

THE highlight of the action between the international breaks has undoubtedly been the turnaround in Stoke’s defence.

They have kept three successive clean sheets for the first time since November 2015, when Mark Hughes was at the height of his popularity, and are gunning for four in a row for the first time since late 2006, when Tony Pulis’s side broke the club record for not letting in goals.

Jack Butland has been needed in the last three second halves, but the difference has been that he has a chance to make saves, not just having goals blasted past him at close range as seemed to be the case for so long.

The con is at the other end. Stoke have posted binary results in their last six games. There hasn’t been fewer goals at both ends since, you guessed it, the binary season of 2004/05 – when they neither scored nor conceded more than one in 18 (eighteen!) straight matches.