Comment by Lou Macari

I IMAGINE it will be quiet in the red and white areas of the Potteries this week as Stoke fans save their voice for Saturday’s bottom-of-the table crunch clash against Middlesbrough.

They won’t need me to tell them just how big this game is – and how big the next four games are as Boro are followed by West Brom, Newcastle and Blackburn.

I reckon it’s now three from eight at the bottom of the Premier League because I discount both Spurs and Bolton.

Spurs always looked like they’d pull clear eventually, as they are now starting to do, and I think Bolton are armed with enough experience to get themselves out of trouble before the end of the season.

But three from eight is still a pretty good equation at this stage of the season and comes about because you’ve got the likes of Blackburn and Newcastle down there.

Few would have banked on that at the start of the season, but there’s no doubt Newcastle, particularly, are in real peril.

With so many clubs down in trouble, you’re bound to get strugglers having the kind of clutch of fixtures now confronting Stoke.

The big advantage for Stoke, of course, is that three of those four games I mentioned are at home – and we all know what that can mean.

I was asked whether Stoke’s poor away record might put too much pressure on their home form. Always possible, of course, but sometimes you’re better off playing under some kind of pressure.

I feel sure Manchester United, for instance, wouldn’t have been beaten 4-1 by Liverpool at the weekend if they‘d had more to play for.

When people are telling you all week that the title is yours, even if you lose to Liverpool, it can get through to the players if you’re not careful.

No such luxury for Stoke, though, but that has suited them so far this season, and I see no reason for that to change just yet.

And while Stoke relish playing at home, it might be that some of the other relegation candidates are not quite so keen to play in front of their disgruntled fans.

Perhaps Newcastle and Middlesbrough, to name just two, though I think Boro would prefer to be playing Stoke at the Riverside rather than the Britannia on Saturday.

I know Tony Pulis has been saying he isn’t worrying unduly about the results of the other strugglers, instead just focussing on his own team.

I can understand what he’s saying, but we all know it’s only human nature to pour over other results, the current league table and forthcoming fixtures.

My only problem is that I’m never quite sure whether you want six-pointers involving two rivals to end in a draw or not. Sometimes it’s better, from your point of view, for one
club to come away with sweet FA to keep them deep in trouble.

Middlesbrough were one of those to draw a six-pointer, of course, and that will take the heat off manager Gareth Southgate ever so slightly after their late equaliser against Portsmouth.

Not that he should worry unduly about his chairman getting itchy fingers because I’m sure Southgate would have gone by now had his boss been anyone other than Steve Gibson. Not only has he put his money where his mouth is over the years, he has remained tremendously loyal to his staff, past and present.

I know for a fact that he takes the likes of Bryan Robson, Chris Kamara and Gordon McQueen on first-class flights to a top hotel in Singapore for a week every year. It might cause a few fireworks if Stoke City chairman Peter Coates was to do the same for some of his ex-employees, mentioning no names.

It’s time the likes of Pedersen paid penalty
I ALMOST wish the referee at Saturday’s Arsenal v Blackburn game – our very own Phil Dowd – had given Morten Gamst Pedersen, pictured, a penalty when he took that shameful dive at the Emirates.

At the time, it was so blatant that I thought he must have genuinely lost his balance or something and innocently tripped up.

I just hope he – and anyone thinking of emulating him – would be so embarrassed by his dive that we’d never see its like again.

The problem is, such players have no shame. If they did, they wouldn’t be up to these shenanigans in the first place.

It’s bad enough seeing players make the most of minimal contact to win a free-kick or penalty, but when players start taking a tumble without an opponent being within two or three yards we in are serious trouble.

Perhaps by giving the spot kick, the Staffordshire official would have highlighted Pedersen’s antics even more, helping to make the game’s custodians realise the time has come for action. The problem of diving is now so widespread that it convinces referees that genuine fouls are not what they seem.

I was in Rome last week and saw a referee overlook a blatant penalty when Arsenal’s Gael Clichy tripped up someone in the penalty area at 1-0 to Roma. The fact the ref was a Mr Gonzalez from Spain, a country long accustomed to players taking a tumble, is no coincidence for me.