Stoke City enjoyed another steady season of consolidation in the Premier League and can also look back with pride on a very good run in Europe. The Potters started the season early but showed little signs of lack of European experience by disposing of Hajduk Split and Thun in the Europa League to reach the group stages. They had a solid start of the league season too and were unbeaten until September. At that point the long European journeys seemed to be draining them though and poor results in the games immediately after the group games showed that Pulis and his men needed to work harder. They overcame a slight slump in form in October to have a very good run in November and December and at the same time claimed a vital 1:1 draw against Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League that saw them through to the knockout stages and set up a clash with Valencia. There was little to get excited in the league though as Stoke were winning the odd game and sitting pretty in mid-table with little chance of challenging for the top-six places. They were intent to have a good run in the FA Cup again and reached the quarter-finals but Liverpool just edged them for a 2:1 win. Earlier Valencia got the better of them in Europe with two narrow wins and Stoke basically had little left to play for in the remainder of the campaign. They were still giving their all in games but with the extra bit of intensity missing, the season fizzed out. Still, Stoke are in good place at the moment and will be hoping to make the next step towards challenging for the upper places next season.
