Stoke City boss Tony Pulis feels there's plenty of positives to draw from their FA Cup win at Crawley Town.

Stoke will be looking to build on their Crawley success, which ended a run of four successive defeats in all competitions.

"We play against a very, very good lower league side," Pulis said.

"We went down to 10 men [when Rory Delap was sent off] and we have shown the character and the spirit the football club has got.

"We've lost game but we've had a very challenging season. What I think people don't understand is how challenging this season has been so far.

"It is something like 43 games so far and we have travelled halfway around Europe playing Europa League ties. It is taxing.

"We, like everybody else who has been involved in those competitions, will have spells where we do well and spells where we don't."