Narcis Pelach reveals what he said to his Stoke City players after 6-1 Pompey thrashing | OneFootball

Stoke earned their first win under Narcis Pelach on Wednesday night

Narcís Pelach told his Stoke City players they deserved to win as comfortably as they did over Portsmouth on Wednesday night.

The Potters earned a 6-1 victory over Pompey, with this being the Spaniard’s first while in charge of the club.

It took Pelach’s side three attempts to get a win on the board, but ended up doing so in emphatic fashion.

After defeats to Hull City and Middlesbrough, Stoke responded by thumping the visitors to the Bet365 Stadium midweek, with Tom Cannon contributing four goals on their way to earning all three points.

Sam Gallagher and Andrew Moran also got on the scoresheet, with Mark O’Mahony bagging what ended up being a consolation goal for John Mousinho’s side.

Narcís Pelach message to Stoke players after 6-1 win

Pelach has told his Stoke players that they deserved to win as heavily as they did on Wednesday night due to the hard work they’ve put in over the last couple of weeks.

The 36-year-old has praised their organisation, and believes the team is already making good progress towards playing his preferred style of football.

"I'm very happy, very pleased," said Pelach, via Stoke Sentinel.

"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."

Stoke City league position

The victory on Wednesday night moved Stoke up to 15th in the Championship table, two points clear of the relegation zone.

The Potters have earned nine points from their opening eight fixtures, with the victory over Portsmouth being their first since the 1-0 win over Plymouth Argyle in August.

This was just their third win of the campaign in total, losing the other five matches they’ve played so far.

Up next for Pelach’s side is a trip to face Swansea City on 5 October in a 3pm kick-off.

Massively encouraging performance from Stoke

It had been a difficult start for Stoke under Pelach prior to Wednesday’s hammering of Portsmouth, with two defeats from two.

But this should be a really encouraging performance for supporters, and a sign of what the team’s potential can be once everything starts to click.

It is still early days for Pelach so far, so there may still be some performances more akin to their game against Middlesbrough before we can expect to see more thrilling wins like Wednesday night’s on a regular basis.