Mark Hughes: Bigger pitch won't hamper my Stoke side

Mark Hughes says Stoke's home form will not suffer when they are forced to increase the size of their pitch this summer.

The Britannia Stadium, unlike some Premier League grounds, can accommodate the league's preferred standardised pitch size of 105m x 68m, but Stoke have been playing on a smaller surface for the past three seasons.

That special dispensation from the Premier League was secured during the Tony Pulis era, when Stoke developed a reputation for restricting opponents' space at the Britannia and making full use of set-pieces.

But Hughes earned a new contract last month on the back of implementing a new style of play at the club, and he said: "We don't need a small pitch to win games here - it won't affect us.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

"It's nothing to do with me - it's basically because we're obliged to. I think there was a three-year dispensation because the club at that time wanted to keep the pitch smaller.

"We argued that if other pitches are smaller than ours we should be allowed to have the same size pitch as the smallest pitch.

"I think we had three years to get used to the idea that it wasn't always going to be that way. We're at the end of the three years, so the pitch will be bigger because we're able to make it bigger.

"It doesn't really affect how we play - we can win and lose on different-sized pitches as we've shown this year."