Stoke boss Narcis Pelach is content with his side’s progress in the Championship after a goalless draw at home to Preston.
After wins against Derby and Blackburn, three draws on the bounce have left the Potters unbeaten in five games and become a stable outfit since the Spaniard’s arrival.
He said: “The most important thing is not losing, it is five games unbeaten now and just one defeat in 10.
“This is not me trying to be positive, it is me being realistic, in the league that we are in, it was not our best performance, but we will have another different game on Saturday and we’ll try to give our all.
“If you cannot win, don’t lose. That is something that happens a lot, a performance like this or 1-0 away from home, you lose the game and then you are like, what have we done here.
“We had a lot of possession but we did not do enough with it, I think we had 12 shots overall, but only one on target. We were not close enough to score goals, we lacked pace, and we lacked speed.
“But at least we were competitive enough to stay on it and we defended a lot of corners against an experienced side.
“This was a dangerous game, I think Stoke lost that game last season. So at least we’ve got the point, but yeah, I am not happy with the performance overall, especially offensively, but we move forward to the next one.”
Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom came away from the game in a reflective mood after seeing his side come close on a couple of occasions.
He said: “I am pleased with lots of things, once again we’ve limited a team to nothing on our goal, which is becoming a good habit which I’m pleased with.
“We’ve not had our rewards for doing that to be fair in the last few games, because even though the team might have had one attempt on goal, they would have been scoring with that attempt.
“So tonight, I am pleased with a clean sheet, I am pleased with the way we were able to impose ourselves on the game in terms of get better as the game went on, which is always a good sign when you’re away from home in particular, because you know the home side is going to be the ones forcing the issue.
“I’m not saying that we came here and dominated the game, people will probably look at it and say it’s a fair result, but I thought we shaded it and looked stronger as the game went on.
“We have been dominant in games and not won enough of them, but that is nothing to fear or to lack confidence over, we just weren’t as positive as I would have liked us to be.”
