I’M NOT surprised Stoke players are more interested in playing on the X-Box with James Beattie than grumbling about his big blue Lamborghini.

Beattie is reportedly the highest earner at Stoke, but I don’t expect the rest of the lads in the dressing room to begrudge him that.

City’s defence and midfield will have played just as well earlier in the season as they have in the last few games, but they haven’t had the rewards they’ve deserved without Beattie to stick the ball into the net.

If he wasn’t putting the effort in, then his pay packet would become an issue. But you only have to look at the celebration for his goal against West Brom, apparently inspired by the Gears of War computer game, to see Beattie’s a popular lad.

He always puts a shift in, but more importantly, his six goals in 10 games have put some distance between Stoke and the relegation zone ... and set up a fascinating shoot-out with Michael Owen at the Britannia on Saturday.

Purely on form, I’d take the Stoke front two of Beattie and Ricardo Fuller over Newcastle’s Owen and Obafemi Martins at present.

But there’s no doubt Owen remains a huge threat to Stoke’s survival ambitions.

He is more than capable of snatching a crucial goal to give the Toon a smash and grab victory at the Brit.

Alan Shearer has, quite rightly, told Owen he’s his main man. He may have struggled for form and fitness, but Shearer recognises Owen as a class act who represents the Toon’s best hope of beating the drop.

In terms of individual ability, Newcastle are better than five or six other teams in the Premier League. But they’ve been low on form and confidence, just the qualities Stoke have in abundance after their run of one defeat in the last six games.

The arrival of Shearer will give Newcastle a lift, regardless of the fact his debut game was that 2-0 defeat by Chelsea.

He will command instant respect in the dressing room, whereas other new managers would take two or three weeks to impose themselves.

He has the fans on side and it is quite possible he can get the extra 10 to 15 per cent out of the players which will be enough to keep them up.

Much has been made of the fact he’s got no managerial qualifications, but he’ll have learned more from playing hundreds of games for Newcastle and going to major tournaments with England than he would from a few weeks at Lilleshall.

His true ability as a manager, including the buying and selling of players and building a side, can only be judged in the long-term ... but it’s all about the next seven for Newcastle.

All the hype will be about Newcastle before Saturday’s showdown at the Brit, but the prize couldn’t be bigger for Tony Pulis’s team. Put simply, if Stoke win they are as good as safe.

I know success wouldn’t make survival a mathematical certainty, but City would be nine points clear of the third-bottom Geordies and I can’t see Shearer’s side clawing that back.

Stoke have run into form at just the right time. What’s more, they seem to have mastered the art of survival, namely beating the teams around them in the Premier League table.

They’ve sunk Bolton, Middlesbrough and now West Brom in the last month, so they won’t be intimidated by the prospect of the Magpies rolling into town.

Their victory at West Brom pretty much sends the Baggies down, and I would be surprised if Middlesbrough don’t follow suit.

That result at The Hawthorns was also one in the eye for all the critics who have compared Stoke’s style unfavourably with that of the Baggies.

The best answer to that would be for Stoke to continue upsetting the purists in the Premier League next season, while West Brom are playing the best football in the Championship.

Other stories on Why Delilah today:
Smith praises defensive duo
City bucking league’s away-day trend
Beating the strugglers is surest way
Pulis right to sound a note of relegation caution