West Brom boss claims Jonny Evans signing is the start of a busy few days

Tony Pulis made a triumphant return to the Britannia Stadium with West Brom

TONY PULIS is promising to make transfer deadline day as hectic for West Brom as it was for many years during his time in charge of Stoke.

 

Pulis finalised the £6million capture of Manchester United defender Jonny Evans shortly after he marked a triumphant return to the Britannia Stadium with a 1-0 victory.

But he is by no means finished yet as he aims to develop a squad capable of matching the achievements at Stoke which earned him such a rapturous reception from the home supporters when he took his place on the touchline.

"Jonny is one of a few players we need to bring in," proclaimed Pulis. "We're hopefully going to be busy right up to this deadline.

"We know where we're lacking and we need more to be competitive in what is a very competitive league this year. The chairman understands that."

In stark contrast to the anticipated deadline activity at Albion, Stoke boss Mark Hughes is unlikely to be panicked into making anymore additions to his squad, despite the fact that his side are still without a Premier League win this season and had two players sent off which meant they had to battle for an hour with nine men.

 

"I saw good qualities in adversity that really encourages me," he insisted. "We've got a good group working hard for each other, so we'll be fine."

A question mark does, however, hang over the future of Republic of Ireland star Jon Walters, and speculation was heightened by his absence here just 24 hours after Stoke had rejected a second bid from Norwich.

"Our stance hasn't changed," said Hughes. "We still hope he's a part of what we are trying to do going forwards, but we'll have to wait and see.

"It has been a difficult week for Jon. Through no fault of his own, there has been a lot of noise around him, so I took the decision to leave him out."

In the circumstances, Stoke could certainly have done with a player possessing Walters' qualities once Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam had both been shown red cards in the space of six crazy minutes for off-the-ball incidents.

But the character and resilience shown by Hughes' side meant West Brom only had a close-range header from record signing Salomon Rondon to show for the numerical advantage which they had for so much of the game.

 

STOKE (4-2-3-1): Butland 8; Johnson 6 (Wilson 62, 5), Cameron 6, Muniesa 7, Pieters 6; Whelan 6, Van Ginkel 7; Shaqiri 6 (Arnautovic 67, 6), Adam 5, Afellay 4; Diouf 6 (Ireland 80). Booked: Pieters. Sent Off: Afellay, Adam.

NEXT UP: Arsenal (a) Sept 12, PL.

WEST BROM (4-5-1): Myhill 6; Dawson 6, McAuley 7, Olsson 6, Lescott 5; Morrison 6, Gardner 6 (McManaman 46, 6), Fletcher 8, Yacob 5 (Lambert 34, 7), McClean 5 (Gamboa 62, 6); Rondon 6. Booked: Gardner, McAuley, Lambert, Gamboa. Goal: Rondon 45.

NEXT UP: Southampton (h) Sept 12, PL.

REFEREE: M Oliver, Ashington.