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MARK ROBINS TELLS FANS HE EXPECTS THINGS TO GET BETTER IN TIME AFTER THE LOSS OF KEY PLAYERS DURING A 'CHALLENGING' PERIOD. PETE SMITH REPORTS...

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MARK Robins might sound pig sick at times at the moment but he insists that does not mean the Stoke City job is impossible.

Robins was pretty emphatic back in his first press conference at the club in January 2025 when it was put to him as the ninth person in that seat in seven years that some critics had wondered whether it was beyond anyone.

But he was asked if there were moments recently when he was having a rethink.

The football gods haven't been kind and just when it looked like the Potters might sustain a challenge in the top half of the Championship at long last, two goalkeepers, a right-back, top-scoring midfielder and three strikers got injured one after the other.

Then this week Bosun Lawal, who has been moving around wherever needed, got injured too.

Still Robins is adamant, saying: "It's not an impossible job. There is no impossible job in football. You've got to have the will. You've got to have the finance, that's for sure and John Coates is incredible in his backing of the club, unwavering in that sense.

"Everyone has challenges and this is our challenge.

"It's a case that we were in a good position at the start of the season. We were saying that it was pretty early and the winter months can be challenging, even more so than the summer months, but I think we had an inordinate amount of injury. I don’t think any sort of planning can mitigate that.