Brave Jack Butland grits teeth to deny Norwich
The 22-year-old has stepped up into the Stoke number one jersey following the departure of Asmir Begovic to Chelsea.
Stoke needed Butland to be at his best in to deny the Canaries during a second-half onslaught.
The visitors had taken an early lead through Mame Diouf, heading in a fine free-kick from debutant Xherdan Shaqiri, only for Norwich captain Russell Martin to level following a drinks break in the sweltering temperatures.
After both Cameron Jerome and Wes Hoolahan missed good chances in the second half, Butland produced saves out of the top drawer to deny Nathan Redmond and then Graham Dorrans twice as Stoke held out for a point.
Hughes said: “He was close to missing the game because he has broken a finger, so when his fingers are all right, he will be even better, if that is possible.
“He showed a lot of maturity prior to the match, because he needed to be honest with me with what he was able to produce and whether or not it was going to compromise him.
Hughes was content with the contribution of Swiss international Shaqiri, who was signed from Inter Milan for £12million.
“He did okay, and has not had a lot of football in pre-season,” Hughes said.
“He will get better once we understand what we need from him and when the players know when he will need the ball to be effective, that will all come with time.” Norwich manager Alex Neil felt his side had done enough to take all three points.
“If you look at the game over the 90 minutes in terms of chances created, we were the better side.
“We should have scored, albeit for good goalkeeping or poor finishing, we did not get the three points we deserved.”
Ruddy, Whittaker, Martin, Bassong, Brady, Redmond, Dorrans, Tettey, Howson (O’Neil 86’), Hoolahan (Johnson 77), Jerome
STOKE CITY Butland, Johnson, Cameron, Muniesa, Pieters, Van Ginkel (Adam 79), Whelan, Shaqiri, Afellay (Ireland 57), Arnautovic (Joselu 57), Diouf
Mike Dean
