Gary Rowett delivers Stoke City verdict as he prepares for bet365 Stadium return
Gary Rowett is sure Stoke City will pull clear of the wrong end of the Championship – as he tries to stop any move upwards this weekend.
Rowett returns to the bet365 Stadium as manager of an Oxford United side who are unbeaten in the seven league games since he took charge, winning five. It is a run that has lifted Oxford up to 14th in the table, seven points above Stoke and only seven adrift of the top six.
But he expects Mark Robins will see a similar climb in the right direction, telling the Oxford Mail: “Stoke are a big club. My expectation of them this season, and still is that they’ll end up in a much better position than they’re in now.
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“We’ve got to make sure we don’t allow that run of form to begin. It’s up to us to do what we need to do, but Mark is an experienced manager, and he knows the division.
“He’ll know what he wants from his team and how he wants to build his team, so it’ll be a tough test.”
He added: “Every game is a different challenge. Stoke away is never an easy game. It’ll be a good atmosphere there and they’ll be desperately wanting their team to step up and go on that run that takes them out of the area they’re in at the moment.
“We were in that same position not long ago, so we know how quickly it can turn around.
“They’ve got a really experienced manager in Mark Robins. I don’t expect anything that you wouldn’t expect when you go to a club like that and when you go and play against a team like that.”
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