Stoke head coach Narcis Pelach has thanked the club’s hierarchy for taking the “very brave” decision to appoint him.
The Spaniard replaced Steven Schumacher in September and has not looked back since.
His side gained another valuable point in a 1-1 draw against Millwall, with another set-piece header from Ben Gibson cancelling out Josh Coburn’s opener.
Pelach said he decided against hiring a set-piece coach as he wanted to do them himself.
“I want to take advantage of this moment to say thank you to John Coates and Jon Walters because they were very brave to appoint me,” he said.
“Everything is going really well and I have the love of the players, I want to make them better players and this is all I can ask.
“I have been here 54 or 55 days in the job and I have enjoyed every single second, I am really happy to be here and to be part of Stoke.
“Hopefully it is the beginning of something long as I don’t want to go anywhere else, I want to be here, working for this club.
“I love set-plays, I was a set-plays coach years ago and I love it. I did not employ a set-piece coach when I started here because I wanted to do it myself as I enjoy that part of the game.
“We go to the ball believing that we are going to score, my set-plays matter and are really simple, and really basic.”
Millwall boss Neil Harris was less than impressed with his side’s fixture scheduling of late, branding their run of three games in six days as “bonkers”.
The 47-year-old praised his players and said that, despite his side’s battling performance, they got away with a penalty decision that could have seen Stoke pick up all three points late on.
“It’s not just the point today, it is the seven points in the week,” said Harris. “That’s massive for us, and I’m sure Stoke, in their own right, will be delighted with their week as well, as it is very difficult in Championship.
“I’ve been very careful what to say before this game, because I didn’t want it to affect the football club and my players, but we finished last Sunday at 5:15pm against Burnley and this is our third game in this six days, it’s bonkers.
“We are put in these sort of situations, so just huge credit to my players for the battling performance and some really good chances were created.
“From where I was it really looked like it was a penalty [to Stoke]. A lot of managers would say ‘I didn’t see it’ or ‘I’m not sure, I would need to see it again’, but at the time I thought it was a penalty, so I think we may have got away with one there.”
