Stoke City boss Mark Robins has offered his assessment of the Potters’ 1-0 win over Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon
18:19, 13 Sep 2025Updated 18:23, 13 Sep 2025
Stoke City manager Mark Robins talks to the media.
Mark Robins has heaped praise on his Stoke City side while also admitting there is room for improvement.
The Potters continued their strong start to the season with a well-deserved 1-0 victory over Birmingham City on Saturday afternoon. The first half was dominated by Robins’ side, who were physically superior and quicker to the ball than their opponents.
The only goal of the match came from a series of chances for Stoke. Striker Divin Mubama had a shot saved by Birmingham’s goalkeeper Ryan Allsop, but Bosun Lawal managed to head in his first goal for the club from the resulting corner in the 21st minute.
And while Robins has praised his team’s overall performance against Chris Davies’ side – he believes there are still a few areas to be critical of.
“I’m absolutely delighted with it,” he said at his post-match press conference. “We played against a really good team in a tight game.
“We started off really brightly, the support was so good. When you’ve lost 50 per cent of your squad to international games it’s difficult to get the work in, but the last two days have been really good. We just needed to start like we’d started in the previous games apart from the West Brom game.
“From today, the start we made, the intensity we showed, and the quality we showed because there was some brilliant attacking football as well. I was very pleased with it.
“The only criticism is if you have an extra touch and that gets closed down and the opportunity to shoot gets closed down, it’s really frustrating for everybody. I came in saying I want to make exciting football and we want to create chances and we’ve got the chances to create those openings to shoot and then we’ve got to take them.
“I think that that’s the only thing I’ve got to say negatively on this performance because I thought otherwise, the commitment, the running, the brains that they showed to close down and press, and they changed the way that they set up, so that is the first time that’s happened for a while.”
Robins has also explained his decision to start new signing Tomas Rigo. The Slovakian was substituted in the second-half as he began to tire, but received an excellent reception from the home crowd.
“Rigo really endeared himself to our support, not only with the quality he showed, but the fact that he was prepared to run back and get a tackle in and get blocks in,” Robins said.
“It’s only been a couple of days because he came back from Slovakia on Tuesday. I wanted him in because I wanted to see him and try and get him up to speed and get some work into him, which we did.
“He showed a real good level of quality and everybody else responds to that.”
Stoke’s start to the season will undoubtedly prompt talk of promotion. Robins is not getting carried away, however.
He added: “It’s a great start, five games, we’ve won four out of the five. Talk to me in 45 [games].
“I think we’ve got a really good, honest bunch of players and there’s no lack of quality or endeavour there which is nice to see.”
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