Mark Robins hails Million Manhoef display after Stoke beat Watford

Stoke manager Mark Robins praised the performance of Million Manhoef after the Dutch winger bagged a brace to help the Potters end their three-match winless run with a 3-1 victory over Watford.

Manhoef found the net either side of half-time before Sam Gallagher added a third late on just after Nestory Irankunda’s stunning strike had pulled one back for the Hornets.

And Robins was full of praise for the 24-year-old, whose last goal came in November, in the aftermath.

“I thought he was really good today,” he said.

“I thought that’s one of his best performances, he was really good.

“And I was umming and ahing about that (the set up of the side) and, when I was picking the team, I was trying to do things, but settled on that.

“But Million was never in doubt playing and I think he’s done exceptionally well today with those two goals.”

Goals have generally been hard to come by for Stoke this season, but they’ve now scored 11 across their last six outings, from which they’ve gained eight points.

“The goals are really important, aren’t they,” Robins said.

“We haven’t done that enough and I would much prefer this, rather than just go ‘right it’s 0-0’ – nobody wants that.

“Can we get the balance between the two? The quality of the goals was outstanding and that should give us the confidence to keep doing it.”

He added: “If you don’t attack with quality and put the ball in and they’re banking on the cross not being good and you hit the first man, all of a sudden it comes out and they’re on a counter attack and that makes you feel a little bit vulnerable.”

The result sees the Potters move up to 13th place with only their second win in their last 12 league games.

Watford, meanwhile, drop one place to 10th – eight points behind Wrexham in the fourth and final play-off spot.

Boss Ed Still felt his side could and should have come away with more from the match.

“Gutted because it’s a little bit of the same feeling as there was after the Sheffield Wednesday game earlier this week, where we’ve started the game and had at least three huge opportunities there, coming in the zones where we wanted to be,” he said.

“[We] pulled the ball back to the zones we wanted to bring it back to and then you need to, at this level or any level, be taking those chances to be one or two ahead and then the dynamic of the game changes completely.

“You put the opposition on the back foot, you’re able to set up and manage the game completely differently.

“So that’s one side of it and then also we’ve come out early in the second half and had another couple of really, really good chances – not just situations, but actual real chances which we haven’t taken.

“So there’s that disappointment to it, knowing that this wasn’t a game to lose based on that performance.

“And then the other side of it is that I’m really disappointed in the lack of discipline that we’ve had on the ball.

“We know what Stoke City’s strengths are and the message and the gameplan that we’ve been working on for the past few days has been really clear of not playing into their pressing zones, where they’re so good.”