Stoke City boss Tony Pulis was delighted with Danny Higginbotham's winning return last night.

Higginbotham helped Stoke to a 2-1 win at Europa League opponents Maccabi Tel Aviv last night.

He was playing his first game for seven months after recovering from a cruciate ligament injury.

Pulis said: "I told him about two weeks ago that this was the game I was looking at and to get himself ready for it. He was smashing before he tired at the end with one or two others as well.

"Wilson (Palacios) got another 65 minutes. He still isn't as sharp as we want him to be but he needs to play games to get that. It's all great experience for the lads."