by Martin Spinks
martin.spinks@thesentinel.co.uk

BORN-AGAIN defender Danny Higginbotham has never played better in a Stoke City shirt.

That is the verdict of City boss Tony Pulis after seeing his deputy skipper highlight his recent return to form by scoring Stoke’s first against Blackburn on Saturday.

And now Higginbotham is set to lead Stoke out again at Wigan this evening (7.45pm), if Abdoulaye Faye is considered too great a risk after a recent back spasm.

Higginbotham was player-of-the-year after his one and only season with Stoke in the Championship, then played his part in Stoke’s debut campaign in the Premier League last season after returning from a 12-month stay at Sunderland.

He played the first four games of the current campaign before a three-month stint in the wings, but returned in December to launch an impressive spell of form at both left-back and centre-half.

“Higgy is most probably playing better than ever at this football club,” claimed Pulis.

“He was out of the team earlier this season, but we got the right response from Dan.

“Competition gets the best out of players. It’s not nice for people to be out of the team.

“Some people react really well, some people don’t. You find out about their characters.

“Others you lose along the way because they can’t handle the competition, but others thrive on it.”

Higginbotham has re-established himself as one of the automatic picks in a side constantly being tinkered with as Pulis tries to keep players fresh.

“We’ve got four tough games coming up, three of them away,” he explained, “and the players who do the most, we’ll be looking after them over the next few weeks.

“Salif (Diao) and Glenn (Whelan) were very good at Sunderland, then I changed it with Dean Whitehead and Rory Delap on Saturday and they did smashing as well.

“We need 40 points and are still 11 off that target. It’s very hard work getting to those points and it’s important we stay focused on that.”

Stoke face a Wigan side deep in trouble fifth from bottom of the Premier League table withafter collecting just one win from their last nine league games following Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Sunderland.

“It takes a manager time to settle in,” Pulis added, “and he (Roberto Martinez) has changed the way they play and brought in a few players.

“When I spoke to Steve Bruce about his old club after our game at Sunderland last week, he thought the Wigan team was very talented and was surprised where they were.

"But on their day they can hurt you. They have beaten Chelsea at home, and when we watched them against Everton 10 days ago they were by far the better team and very unlucky to lose.

“We’re looking forward to it because we are in good form and good nick.I think we’ve sold nearly 2,000 tickets, so there’ll be good support behind the goal.

"It’s important we give our fans something to shout about.”