West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Clarke was disappointed with the timing of international week.
Clarke's side are unbeaten in four games having picked up the pace after an indifferent start to the season and the Scot admits the recent round of World Cup qualifiers were not ideal for Albion.
"We were on a good run but the fixture schedule is there and you know when the international breaks are coming in," he said.
"Our job is to make sure we don't lose the momentum over the break. We'll get the full group together and get ourselves ready and prepared for a difficult game at Stoke and hopefully we can pick up that momentum really quickly."
