Tony Pulis is delighted to see that Mark Robins has found a way of playing at Stoke City that can win games in the Championship

Tony Pulis can sense “a better buzz” around the Potteries as he and Stoke City supporters sense a chance to genuinely challenge for a place in the top eight.

Pulis has been glad to see results improve markedly since the opening fortnight of the season, since when Stoke have taken 19 points from eight games to sit sixth in the early standings.

He can see it is raising hopes and expectations in Mark Robins’s new-look squad, which has found different ways to win since settling into a back three system in early September.

Stoke have won three successive away games for the first time since 2005 and scored in 13 successive games for the first time since 2001 – and it is the knack of finishing on the right side of tight games that Pulis recognises as key to success at this level.

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“There was concern about what was going on in the early games, but then Stoke won six out of eight games, and that's the Championship,” he said in an interview for CasinoHawks. “That's how quickly it turns.

“Mark will be well set, but there's a better buzz about the city in respect of those results. Six or seven games and all of a sudden it sparks the expectations now.

“Stoke will want to get in the play-offs and be a forceful team in there. I'm not sure they've got enough to finish in the top two, but they certainly have enough to finish in the top eight.

“Mark will be delighted and relieved that they've found a way of playing and a system where they can win games. In the Championship, you'll have a lot of games where it's very close.

“There's not a great difference between the teams, and it's just that little bit in both boxes. If you can keep a clean sheet and nick a goal, you end up at the top end of the table instead of the bottom half. It's those thin margins and thin lines.

“Their 1-0 victory against Derby shows the difference between both ends of the pitch, having someone who can nick a goal and having a team that can keep clean sheets.”