SLEUTH O'NEILL INVESTIGATES THE FINE MARGINS TO PUSH POTTERS

FOCUS ON STOKE’S SURVIVAL FIGHT

- John Wragg

IT JUST seemed like five hours watching Stoke draw 0-0 with Millwall a few weeks back. But glutton for punishment Michael O’Neill actually spent five hours going through the video.

That gives an idea of the detail, and the dedication, it has taken over the past three months to improve Stoke from basket case to a team with a good chance of staying in the Championship.

Stoke were bottom and six points adrift of safety when O’Neill, left, took over and had won only two of their first 15 league games.

Nathan Jones had looked more and more frantic in his frenzied desire to find a winning team and caretaker Rory Delap lasted one game, a defeat at home to West Brom, before O’Neill took over on November 8 and won the next day at Barnsley.

True, Friday night’s 4-0 drubbing at Derby was a setback, but O’Neill’s league record is P15 W7 D2 L6. That’s 23 points out of 45 and a return to optimism after successive years of decline. On his current ratio of points-to-games, O’Neill is heading for a low mid-table finish.

His Northern Ireland job parked for the time being, O’Neill has brought calm and organisation to a club that is on its fifth manager in 25 months.

There was a time when Stoke fans were disenchanted with what they regarded as a so-so mid-table life in the Premier League.

Before O’Neill, Stoke were looking at away trips to Fleetwood and Rochdale in League One next season – that’s how far they had fallen. Home form has benefited in particular with last week’s 2-0 win over Swansea their fourth clean sheet in five.

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