THE WAY I SEE IT

Mark Robins has led Stoke City to the leading places in the Championship table.

- By Mike Pejic

N the chaos of the Championship, how refreshing it is that Stoke City seem to have found the gold dust of consistency. It can take you a long way and it doesn't happen by chance.

You need to have players who you can rely upon in terms of quality and availability. There will still be injuries but you do your best to mitigate them. Touch wood, we've made a big step in the right direction on that front.

Then we have Mark Robins, who is level headed as well as demanding and ambitious. He has learned a lot from his experiences as a player and as a manager. I'd still love to listen to him about his time under Sir Alex Ferguson, as well as all the rest of his career, the highs, lows and tribulations.

I've said before that we and the players can clearly see and understand what he wants. It doesn’t change too much from week to week, even if he can make tweaks. You can probably hear my sigh of relief as I write that.

So I'm pleased that he's signed up for a new contract, as well as his coaching staff - don’t underestimate their importance - and even if we might lose the odd game here or there, I feel like we're getting more right than wrong at the moment