Narcis Pelach told his Stoke City players they deserved their rollicking win over Portsmouth for the hard work they have put in since he joined as head coach only a fortnight ago.
Pelach has had a whirlwind start to life at the bet365 Stadium, thrown straight into a home match against Hull and getting a hard lesson at Middlesbrough - at the same time as trying to implement a majorly different style of play and prolonging the training days at Clayton Wood.
But everything came together in a 6-1 thrashing of Portsmouth, with Tom Cannon scoring four and fellow summer signings Sam Gallagher and Andrew Moran also getting on the scoresheet.
"I'm very happy, very pleased," said the head coach. "The players needed that. I think against Hull the game could have gone another way. I was very happy with the first half against a good team and at Middlesbrough, they were a tough two games to go into with just a few days to work on everything. But today they got their reward.
"I said at the end of the game, 'You deserved the result for all the work you've put in over the last 15 days, I'm already seeing you play a style of play and this is difficult'. Even more I saw the team organised, not aggressive but organised, which is what happened at the beginning and I'm very happy for them, the staff and the fans of course."
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