Potters boss eyeing repeat!

Potters boss eyeing repeat of 1984

It will be 24 years to the day since United last visited Stoke for a league game and then, like now, the odds were stacked very heavily against the Potteries club.

Stoke were eventually relegated with what was then a record low number of points, 17 from 42 games, but they still managed to beat the Red Devils 2-1 at the old Victoria Ground.

The Potteries club also lost 5-0 at Old Trafford that season, just as they did last month and Pulis is confident another sell-out crowd can help his side repeat their exploits from 1984.

Pulis said: "All I know is I can't wait for the game and neither can my players or the Stoke supporters. We will do our damnedest to get something from it.

"Manchester United was always a massive game for the Stoke fans 20-odd years back, and I'm just delighted it is the fixture we can all look forward to on Boxing Day.

"Boxing Day is one of the big days when everyone goes out to watch a game so for us to be hosting Manchester United, the Premier League champions, European champions and now world champions is just fantastic.

"No disrespect to Barnsley and Plymouth, but we were playing those clubs away last Christmas and this year we've got United at home and then go to West Ham.

"It shows how far we've come, but we've still got a lot of work to do to stay where we are and continue to build the club."

A home win on Friday is priced at a distant 15/2 by Bet 365, the online bookmakers owned by Stoke chairman Peter Coates.

But Pulis' men have already upset similar odds to beat Arsenal and draw at Liverpool this season, and their home form has been very impressive.

Pulis, in his second spell as Potters boss, added: "No disrespect to us but United are on a different planet in respect of what they've got. Sir Alex has got a great squad of players and we know whichever side he picks will have enough danger and enough ammunition to hurt us.

"But we'll have a full house here getting behind our team and I just hope they breathe enough fire into the lads to give them a real kick up.

"With 20-odd thousand Stokies breathing fire into our players you just never know so I'm hoping we'll give them a real good run for their money."

Pulis has huge admiration for Ferguson and rates him "the greatest manager ever."

He added: "They talk about foreign managers, but he's a top, top man. To win the Premier League title, the Champions League and now the World Club Championship is a remarkable achievement and brilliant for this country.

"The pressure at a club as big as United is enormous, but he deals with great players and he always gets the best out of them. Complacency very, very rarely becomes an issue.

"I expect they might have to carry him out of there, but when he does leave I believe he will go down as the greatest ever."

Meanwhile Steve Simonsen will hope to keep his place in goal for the game against United and he believes a return to the role of underdog can give his side the advantage.

He said: "You never know what's going to happen. Obviously Manchester United will be strong favourites to win the game and rightly so because they're the world, European and Premier League champions, but we'll go out there and do our very best and hopefully we can cause an upset.

"In the last few games there has been an expectation on us to go out and get three points whearas we've got nothing to lose in this game so if we go all out we can hopefully get a very good result which would do the team the world of good.

"Everybody's looking forward to it because it's a huge, huge game and just the sort we all looked out for when we first came up to the Premier League."

Simonsen has warned his team-mates, though, that they must improve on their performance at Old Trafford if they are to claim revenge on Friday.

He added: "We've already had a taste of what it's like to be on the wrong end of a big defeat to them this season so it's a good chance for us to put things right.

"Everyone will expect them to come here and give us another tonking but we'll be right up for this one and hopefully we can get a good result.

"The 5-0 defeat was pretty sobering but we've got to learn not to gift teams goals. For example we can't give away free-kicks outside the box in positions where Ronaldo can smash one in,

"We just need to do the basic things right and play with a passion and to our strengths. We'll have the crowd behind us as well at home so all of those things will hopefully stand us in good stead for a good performance."

Im sure he wants a win, but, I think they will really struggle today, cos, Man UTD will want to be back at the top pf the Prem, but, Anything can happen in the world of football. But, I think man UTD will win witha big margin