Hull City-Stoke City

Posted Friday, April 02, 2010 by YAHOO Sport

LONDON (SE) - Hull manager Iain Dowie is backing Jozy Altidore to shoot down Stoke on Saturday after claiming the American can be the Tigers’ relegation saviour.

Altidore, 20, has struggled to make an impact in the Premier League since joining Hull from Spanish side Villarreal on a season’s loan in August, scoring just one goal in 23 games.

The 20-year-old played a starring role in last weekend’s 2-0 defeat of Fulham and Dowie said: “I have seen something in him.

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“He has quality in his feet and is a handful and could be the player that keeps Hull up.

“He can run, he has power, a cool finisher, lovely feet and he put in a real good shift.

“Jozy is a lad I will be driving mad and getting at him to get an intensity in his training.

“He is a laid-back lad, which is not a criticism; we love him to death we just need to get a bit of devil in his stomach.”

Dowie has told his players to forget about their dismal away record after going 13 months without a win on their travels.

“My main issue coming here was to have a completely clean slate from top to bottom. We’ve lost one away game since I’ve been here and that could have been very different.

“If you talk about the away form too much it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“We’ll only talk about our game plan and how we think we can hurt Stoke and cope with their strengths.”

Tony Pulis has blasted rival Premier League bosses for labelling Stoke a long ball side.

Pulis is angry the Potters do not get the credit they deserve and claims opposition managers deride their robust approach to cover their own team’s failings.

Stoke boss rapped: “When we played Manchester City Roberto Mancini said when you go to Stoke the ball is always in the air.

“But City had 60 per cent of the ball in both out games against them recently.

“What disappoints me is mangers dragging us into it. They try to turn it on us because of their own inadequacy, instead of saying ‘yes we weren’t at it today and Stoke deserved to win.’

“If you get results against one of the so-called big teams they always make excuses instead of holding their hands up.

“Even Man City can have an off day with \00A3250 million pounds worth of talent.”

Rafael Benitez and Arsene Wenger have also been critical of Stoke’s style, which has lifted them to 11th place in the table.

Pulis added: “It is not just Mancini. The perception is when you get beat by a so-called smaller club you talk rubbish.”

Stoke are set to welcome back defender Ryan Shawcross after recovering from an ankle injury.

England World Cup hopeful Shawcross has not played since being sent off for the tackle that broke Aaron Ramsey’s leg during Stoke’s 3-1 defeat at home to Arsenal last month. Shawcross said: “I am desperate to get back.”