by Michael Baggaley
michael.baggaley@thesentinel.co.uk

FORMER Stoke and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton believes his old club can build on their impressive league form by lifting the FA Cup for the first time in their history.

The Potters travel to Wigan for a Premier League game tomorrow full of confidence after extending their unbeaten run to six games with Saturday’s demolition of Blackburn.

They travel to Manchester City for a televised fifth-round tie on Saturday, but Shilton believes Tony Pulis’s 11th-placed side have become a fearsome proposition for any opponents.

He said: “Stoke have every chance. It won’t be easy against Manchester, City who have some quality players, but Stoke are difficult to play against.

With the teams left in it, you have to say Stoke are one of those with a chance.

“They are doing absolutely superbly right now and I am so pleased to see them doing well.

“You have to hand it to Tony Pulis. He realises it is difficult for teams to compete with the big boys in the transfer market, so he got a system that is effective and suited to his players.

“He didn’t fall into the trap when Stoke got promoted to the Premier League of trying to change the system and play a different type of football.

“He just brought a little bit more quality in defence and in attack, but he still played that direct, single-minded football that got the success in the first place and that has been successful again.”

Shilton was a special guest of FA Cup sponsors e.on at an outdoor exhibition in Hanley’s Old Hall Street on Saturday.

The FA Cup was also on display and fans were given the chance to test their goalkeeping skills.

Shilton, meanwhile, believes the collapse of Stoke’s move for Portsmouth keeper David James is bad news for James and England.

James’s 49 England caps are still well behind the 125 won by Shilton, who said: “When I heard about James coming to Stoke, I thought it would be good news for him, because Stoke won’t struggle as much as Portsmouth and, from an England point of view, he needs to get his form back.

“He needs to get some confidence back and that will be more difficult at Portsmouth, where he will be more exposed than he would have been at Stoke.

“Stoke don’t lose a lot of goals, are pretty tight and Thomas Sorensen has done a good job.

“Sorensen has been at a few clubs and has been a bit inconsistent.

“He has a very good spell and then seems to lose a bit of confidence for some reason, but since he has been at Stoke he seems to have been solid and has kept his form.”

While James sweats on his England place, Shilton believes Ryan Shawcross and Matthew Etherington can play for their country, although probably not in time for the World Cup.

The former Leicester, Stoke, Nottingham Forest, Southampton and Derby keeper says neither player has to move to a bigger club to win international recognition.

He said: “People ask me why I never played for a ‘big’ club. I had the opportunities to play for Manchester United and Arsenal. It never quite came off, but it never affected me in terms of winning England caps.

“It is all about performance and if you are playing in the Premier League and playing well you have every chance of being picked for England.”

Shilton played 120 games for Stoke after being signed from Leicester City by Tony Waddington in November 1974 for £325,000, a then world-record fee for a goalkeeper.

He was sold to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest for £270,000 at the start of the 1977/78 season following Stoke’s relegation from the top flight.

He said: “Joining Stoke was a big decision for me because there were a few clubs interested. But Stoke had a lot of potential and a good team with the likes of Alan Hudson, Geoff Salmons and Denis Smith. I thought we had a really good chance of success.

“In the first season I was there, we were on top of what is now the Premier League, and Kevin Keegan on Match of the Day tipped us to win the league.

“But towards the end of the season, Denis Smith and our right winger Jimmy Robertson broke their legs. We didn’t have a big squad so it just took the edge of us and we just fell away a bit.

“The next season we were half-way up the league and just starting to hit a bit of form, then the roof blew off the Butler Street Stand.

“The club hadn’t insured the stand, so we were short of money and had to sell. I was the last well-known player to leave Stoke.

“We were relegated the following season and, although I stayed for the start of the next campaign, it was never going to work because Stoke needed the money to get on a financial footing.”

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