Stoke City chairman Peter Coates on Tony Pulis

We've had six really good years, and we have a bad patch of a few weeks, and people start talking like this. That's not really very realistic. I think I've just put a pretty strong case there. We've developed over the last six years. We've got two very, very good years. We got in the Premier League when everybody said we'd get relegated right away, which we never did. We're enjoying our fifth year and hopefully we'll enjoy our sixth year. So suddenly, because you hit a difficult patch, which we've hit before by the way, and which every other club hits, certainly clubs in our category, you know, from 14th downwards, I could always give you a list of all clubs that just sees a new difficult patch. We need to win. I've said that a few times in my life and I'll say it again: we need to win a match and get on with it.

I understand what they're saying, but I think we have developed over time and are developing, and we'll address that particular issue. If you look at the players we've brought in, we've brought in some very talented players and they can play. And I think over time you'll see the benefit of that. Luck plays quite a big part in football. We were doing okay, we played against Arsenal, we lost to a free kick late on. It hit Geoff Cameron, our goalkeeper, ricocheted, goes in. What do you do with that? And a poor first half, very disappointing first half. Second half we could have won the game. Had John Walters converted his penalty kick, I believe we'd have probably gone on to win it. Nobody's immune from these things and they just happen. We were poor against West Ham, which is really where a lot of this criticism comes from. I accept we were poor and it was a poor game. We didn't play well that game, there was still nothing in the game even though we didn't play very well.

No, not really. I'm used to football. I've been around a long time. Let me give you a good example. I was in on Saturday because we weren't playing. I watched quite a bit of sport. I watched cricket, I watched rugby, I watched football. I watched quite a bit of the Wigan match against Everton. David Moyes, generally regarded as one of the best British managers in football, and I would agree with that sentiment, they get knocked out by Wigan when they're expecting to win. They play badly and these results have come unfortunately just as the early bird season tickets were on sale. The message to supporters who may be wavering is we want them to stay with us. We think we've delivered real progress for this football club. I don't think any supporter can't, won't agree with that. And just because we're having a bit of a wobble, we hope they'll stay with it. They're important to us and we recognise that. They're good supporters. We get very vociferous support. The reputation of the stadium is now well established.

Well, that's our objective, yes. Nothing... I suppose that's every club's objective, because that's what you should be. And we can get there. But we need to stay in the Premier League. That's critical, obviously. That's self-evident to anybody. And that's what we've got to do. And we need to win a game sooner rather than later.

It's always been vitally important in my view. But you can add something on to it because there's more money coming in, and you want to be into that new money, because if you're not, it's that much harder when you're out of it to get back.

Our supporters, as always, they've been brilliant. They're well known and really good. People say it's one of the best atmospheres you watch football in. Some people are quite surprised when they come, they're there, they're just noisy and loud and how much they get behind the team. I don't think that will change. They do understand it's an important factor and they know they can play a part.