‘WE NEED TO SHOW OUR CHARACTER TO BUILD ON SUCCESS’

O’neill admits Potters had to find a different way to claim away victory

MICHAEL O’neill told his Stoke City players they needed to show character as much as quality to get back on track – and knows he has to keep seeing it.

Stoke’s resilience had come into question after letting leads slip in three out of four games before Wednesday night’s gritty 1-0 Championship win at Blackpool.

The bottom line was all about the result and that will be an important trait if Stoke are to keep a top six challenge alive over the winter.

O’neill, who takes his side to Luton tomorrow, said: “It was a different side to the team and they had to show it, there’s no doubt about that.

“I said to them that the worst thing is to have your character questioned. We will play better than that, there’s no doubt, although we did play some good football in the game.

“Ultimately we showed the side of our character which we need to see again on Saturday.”

It felt like an important win for Stoke on the back of such a freak afternoon against Cardiff last weekend.

O’neill said: “It’s about trying to get consistency and resilience, being difficult to beat, winning tight games like at Blackpool.

“Our away form we know we need to build on. That’s two away wins and we’ve thrown away leads away from home, which is always disappointing. We can build on this again, going into Luton, a tough game against a team who has had a good start. We’ll be ready for that.

“We went into the previous international break in third on the back of a really good win over West Brom but suddenly we lose three games in a row and that’s obviously difficult.

“We felt a little bit hard done by at times but we had to react to that. We shot ourselves in the foot last Saturday from a commanding position, a very commanding position, but we went to Blackpool and won and I think we’re turning the corner on that now.”

It is one more match before the next international break and the Championship is refusing to settle. The four points Stoke have picked up in the last few days is the difference between sixth and 15th.

Luton are one point behind in eighth but O’neill isn’t taking too much notice of the standings, knowing it will look after itself if Stoke can find a decent level of consistency, keep up their home form and pick up more points on the road.

He said: “I’m not even looking at the league table! We could be 18th on Saturday, you never know (in this division)!

“We’ve ended certainly a blip. It was good for us to get a win away from home. We’ve been in front away and lost so it was important that when we went in front we made sure we kept a clean sheet to win the game.

“We were punished at Millwall and

Sheffield, having been in a good position in both games. On

Saturday we were in a great position and obviously squandered it again. Mentally that’s difficult for the players so the reaction was good.”