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Mark Hughes: Stoke will learn from Birmingham slip-up
MARK HUGHES says his Stoke side wont be caught out again like they were at Birmingham City in the Capital One Cup where they led 3-1 and were forced into a dramatic penalty shoot out.
“It’s been a good week, we played well at Manchester United and Birmingham and are in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup “, said Stoke boss Hughes.
“But from being 3-1 up at Birmingham we should have had the game won and not allowed it to get into the situation it was.
“We will learn from that.
“From a few games ago when we couldn’t score we’ve got six in two games but conceded a lot as well, seven.
“We haven’t got the balance right yet, but we’ll get there.”
Stoke haven’t won in the Premier League since August, a 1-0 victory at West Ham, and Hughes says they need to end the barren run with a victory over Southampton tomorrow.
“Southampton are doing very well,” said Hughes. “ I think they invested £30m in players in the summer and that is showing.
“But we need a win. Our performances have been good in general but we need some wins to go with it now.
“We’re at home and the backing we get is very good. We’ve played a number of the Premier League’s top teams in the difficult start to the season and we’ve only been at home only four times.
“So now we can make up for that.”