Stoke City skipper Andy Griffin says he has no doubts over Dave Kitson's scoring ability.

Griffin said: "Every centre-forward, regardless of how good you are, will go through a little bit of a barren spell.

"I played with Alan Shearer for six years and he went through patches like this. It happens to players at the lower end of the leagues and the very best.

"The good thing with Dave Kitson is he has an old head on young shoulders. So regardless of the price tag we don't expect his lack of goals will have an affect on his performances. If you look at his goal scoring record at Reading, it speaks for itself.

"He'll be all right. We know he'll keep plugging away. Some forwards have spells where they can't score, then everything they touch ends up in the back of the net."