Mark Hughes proud of Stoke response in comeback win

Stoke boss Mark Hughes rejected the notion his side had been lucky to claim a 2-1 win over Southampton at the Britannia Stadium.

Southampton were the better side for much of the game and Hughes saw his side fall behind to a first-half Morgan Schneiderlin goal, before they rallied with goals from Mame Miram Diouf and Charlie Adam to consolidate their place in the top half of the Premier League table.

And Hughes felt his side did well to keep their visitors at arms length before grabbing the points with Adam's late winner.

"In terms of chances created we restricted a very good Southampton side to very few," he said. "We had to deal with a lot of long balls up to Pelle, who was a handful.

"They went back-to-front. They changed their team today, they went with bigger guys and left their more skilful players on the bench - that's their decision - but I just felt in terms of the momentum, certainly in the second half, we were very comfortable. 

"They had a lot of possession which would would expect - they rotate the ball quite well - but they never really caused us too many problems. 

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"There was one where there was some confusion in the box and it was kicked off the line, but I thought second-half we were excellent, got good balls into good areas and given that we were behind in the game initially, I thought it was a great response."

Stoke's equaliser had a large element of luck as Stephen N'Zonzi's overhit cross came back off the bar and dropped to Diouf, who rifled home first time.

"You make your own luck. Thankfully it dropped to Mame and I have to say it was a great first-time finish," added Hughes, who also revealed that Peter Crouch is likely to need an operation in the summer. 

"Crouchy has been struggling with injury - he will probably need an operation in the summer - we're just trying to manage him, so 20 minutes or so is what he can manage and he made an impact and in the end we've been able to get a goal from Charlie, who will always come and affect the game. He's done it so many times for me.

"People outside will always say the game was more important for Southampton, but that wasn't the case here. We're chasing a points tally that hasn't been done before in the Premier League. We've matched the highest number of wins today, we've got home games to come and we can achieve things this year ourselves and you saw that in our play."