Fulham's Danny Murphy named Stoke as one of three sides particularly guilty of making reckless tackles. Murphy picked out Stoke, Blackburn and Wolves as the chief offenders for making "ridiculous" and "brainless" challenges and insisted that approach came from the teams' managers.
But Potters chairman Peter Coates has defended the club and manager Tony Pulis.
He told Stoke's official website: "I am surprised by his comments. He himself is a very competitive player and maybe with hindsight he perhaps wishes he had said nothing, but there you are.
"We are a strong team, we are competitive, but we like to think we are fair and play the game in the right spirit. That's how it should be.
"If you look at the disciplinary league table this year, we are doing okay. We are sitting in 10th place and you will see in that league table some notable names below us and some red cards being shown to those notable names as well."
