ROBINS: POTTERS MUST ACT

MARK Robins knows Stoke City need to find a way to bring in 'one or two' bits after being hitxxxxxx by a spate of injuries.

- Peter Smith

Stoke were missing seven men for their 1-0 FA Cup third round win over Coventry, when Lamine Cisse scored a brilliant late winner with his first goal for the club.

There is hope that four of those injured players - Eric Bocat (knee), Aaron Cresswell (calf), Lewis Baker (ankle) and Ben Gibson - will be back in the next two or three weeks.

But Viktor Johansson and Robert Bozenik are long-term layoffs after undergoing shoulder surgery on the same day last week and Junior Tchamadeu is waiting to discover the extent of the damage on a knee injury picked up at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Stoke have two spaces in their allowed 25-man squad following the exit of loanee Jamie Donley and they have to balance what they need with what they can do under profit and sustainability rules.

But, sitting one point outside the playoffs and in the fourth round of the FA Cup and with a potentially exciting few weeks and months ahead, there will be business.