Potters put points before plaudits

STOKE may not be winning many friends this season, but their happy habit of winning points could yet prolong their stay at this exalted level.

Another victory on Saturday over a fellow Premier League newbie lifted Stoke into the dizzy heights of 13th place and provided yet more thumping vindication of Tony Pulis’s substance-over-style approach. It was fitting that the hulking Mamady Sidibe, the man who best encapsulates Stoke’s methods, chalked up the winner with a thunderous 84th-minute header.

Albion’s struggles excepted — defeat left them rooted to the foot of the table — this is turning into a good season for the new-boys. Stoke and, even more dramatically, Hull, have defied expectations to claim a series of eye-catching results.