Mark Hughes Relieved as Stoke Take Vital 3 Points Against West Brom

Stoke City boss Mark Hughes spoke about his side's 'relief' after their vital 3-1 win against West Brom on Saturday.

After reports of the weekend's result determining Hughes' future at the club, the 3-1 win has guaranteed that Hughes will be in his position at least until Christmas is over.

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Speaking to BBC Sport, Hughes said: "There's a bit of relief because we needed that result today, I thought we were good value."

Stoke absolutely dominated the possession in the first half and went into the break with a comfortable 2-0 lead.

"First half I thought we were excellent in terms of our attacking play; passing and moving. I thought we had good movement all over the field."

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"We got on the ball and made it difficult for West Brom to get a foothold in the game."

West Brom took a goal back through Salomon Rondon, who capitalised on a through-ball from Chris Brunt that split the Stoke defence.

"We just made one mistake on a through-ball. We just got a little bit nervous in our play which is understandable given our recent form."

But Stoke lost the control they had in the first half, with West Brom looking fired up as another goal looked likely to arrive.

"We tried to be a little bit more aggressive in key areas but I just think we lost a bit of confidence in getting the ball down and playing.

"We had to stand up to their challenge and thankfully we did that. We had to get the job done today."

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"They pushed everybody forward. We knew balls would be coming into the box."

But the equalising goal never arrived for the Baggies, as Ramadan Sobhi took Eric Choupo-Moting's unselfish pass and scored to kill the game off.

"It was an excellent finish at the end, clearly they were at risk because they were pushing so many players forward and we broke well and killed the game off."

Hughes commented on the press' reports on his job security and used the opportunity to thank the Stoke owners for their support in the recent weeks.

"There was a lot of outside pressure but I've had fantastic support from Peter and John Coates.

"They've been in all this week and all they've been doing is reassuring me, reassuring staff, reassuring the players that they're fully behind what we're doing and that support is really important."

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"I like to think we've rewarded them a bit today, but there's still a lot of work to be done, we've got games coming thick and fast."