The Potters needed a while to get used to the Championship after relegation but 10 games unbeaten is a good springboard for the second half of the season.
We’re at the exact halfway point of the Championship season, with 23 out of 46 games now done and dusted, just in time for Christmas.
Stoke City fans will probably be looking back at the past year with some regret at having dropped out of the Premier League, but also some relief as things finally seem to be on track again.
Casting our eyes back to the start of the season, the Guardian published a fan-led preview of the 2018-19 Championship campaign, with the Potters predicted to finish third in the table.
“We’ll do well but we won’t steamroll the division like a lot of our fans were predicting after the first couple of signings,” wrote the Stoke contributor. “My head thinks playoffs but my heart says we could top the lot if we get lucky with injuries. Let’s go for third.”
Rather optimistic, considering how poorly Gary Rowett’s side began the season – two draws and two defeats in their opening four league fixtures, one win from their first seven; basically, the team struggled to acclimatise to the second tier, and things just didn’t click.
However, Stoke experienced an upturn in form following October’s 1-0 loss to Rowett’s former employers Birmingham, embarking on a 10-match unbeaten run that included a win over Derby and draws with Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.
The Stoke boss has managed to tighten things at the back somewhat, though there’s still work to be done, as shown by three 2-2 draws in the last six games, as well as focusing on the players’ fitness, which he spoke about in the Stoke Sentinel earlier this month.
At present, the Potters sit ninth in the table, four points off the playoffs and, considering by how tight the table is – eight points separating 14th-placed Blackburn from fourth-placed Middlesbrough – there is likely to be a lot of musical chairs over the festive period.
In terms of January transfer, Rowett has said there likely won’t be more than one or two players signed by Stoke in the window, so it remains to be seen who could be brought in that could give the team that extra edge to turn those draws – 10 in 23 is quite high – into wins complete with clean sheets.
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