Sport

Mark Hughes has Southampton in his sights after away win

Stoke City's Bojan Krkic scores the winner at Southampton at St Mary's on Saturday<br />Picture by PA&nbsp;
Stoke City's Bojan Krkic scores the winner at Southampton at St Mary's on Saturday
Picture by PA 
Stoke City's Bojan Krkic scores the winner at Southampton at St Mary's on Saturday
Picture by PA 

MARK HUGHES hopes Saturday's win at Southampton provides another step in Stoke's progression up the Barclays Premier League table.

Bojan Krkic's 10th-minute strike secured City's first win at St Mary's, and their first on the English south coast in 35 years. Southampton have led the charge of the teams chasing the traditional top-six clubs in recent seasons, but Hughes feels this could be the year Stoke overtake them.

"Southampton have done really well in recent years, finishing top-10, top-eight, top-seven and we haven't quite been able to catch them," said the City boss.

"But maybe this is the season we'll be able to do that."

Stoke are rapidly becoming the top-flight's latest away-day specialists, with three wins, three draws and just one defeat on the road. They comfortably sat on Bojan's third goal of the season, a neat near-post flick from Erik Pieters' cross, and could have scored more but for some wayward finishing from Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic.

"We are doing okay on the road and we need to keep it going," added Hughes.

"We have got a defensive platform, which is helping us to get good results on the road."

Swiss winger Shaqiri impressed again until he had to be withdrawn in the second-half with a slight hamstring problem, but Hughes said the move was precautionary.

"He had a little tightness and that was the reasoning behind taking him off when we did," the Welshman said.

"He wanted to go out and play the second-half, but it was important that we protected him a little bit, which is what we did. I was really pleased with what he offered us once more. You can see each game he plays that he is adapting and showing the undoubted qualities he possesses."

Southampton striker Graziano Pelle endured a frustrating afternoon, culminating in him picking up his fifth booking of the season for kicking the ball away.

The Italian will now miss next week's trip to Manchester City, and manager Ronald Koeman said: "It's all about the frustration of the player.

"He was not playing well, he was not scoring and the team was not winning, but you have to control yourself always. We have to accept it and we will play another number nine next week."