Robins used experience to achieve Potters survival...

ARK Robins' back was against the wall in January when he joined Stoke City.

- By Mike Pejic

Results had been poor, the treatment room was full and there were questions about fitness levels.

Of course we all would have liked a huge bounce and everything suddenly becoming rosy but the key was in how he reacted to the reality that it wouldn't. This wasn't a quick fix, magic wand type of job and what has a quick bounce can sometimes crash quickly back to earth. Cardiff, for example, won four out of six games soon after Omer Riza took over in the autumn.

Robins could call on experience stretching all the way back to his days at Manchester United, as well as all those games as a manager. He knows all about the importance of getting pressure results and he kept cool and kept calm.

We have seen managers come in to Stoke before and they have been derailed by a defeat, making five or six changes to the starting line-up for the next game. But where do you go when you lose the next one if you do that?

Players have to know where you're coming from and I think the message from Robins has been quite clear. He hasn't beat around the bush, he's got his coaches working with them on the training ground, kept a consistent system and side on a match day and the rest is down to them and what they get paid for.

The priority was to stay in the Championship and he's also managed to look at every individual in the club to see how they have reacted to these situations. He's seen the ones who have strong characters and weak characters, the ones with ability they can still use in stressful times and the ones who don't produce when they're up against it. It will have been eye-opening.