Reaction from Mark Robins after Stoke City beat Derby County to sit sixth in the Championship

Mark Robins got one of his most important results as Stoke City manager on the last day of his first half-season in charge when he earned a draw to avoid relegation.

He has now left Pride Park 17 months later with a 1-0 win that leaves Stoke sitting sixth in the Championship after 11 matches, picking up 19 points out of the last 24 available and with a new R word on repeat in his post-match interviews.

The manager praised Stoke’s resilience following an exhausting return to action after the international break. They beat Bolton with 10-men last Saturday, gave Middlesbrough a battle in mid-week and then ground out this victory in front of a sell-out away end.

This was not, he admitted, a game for the purists – and it was the type of match he thought would have been too much for his side last year. But with 10 new signings, a fit-again Viktor Johansson and that kind of spirit, he is heading into a long Championship winter with confidence.

He said: “We had to defend corners, crosses and long balls. It was all day. The fact that you've got contact, the fact you've got to jump, it's tiring. It takes a lot out of you. It takes a lot of your legs when your jumping and there's contact. Carlton Morris is the master of it.

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“To keep them out and get a clean sheet away from home… and we've been here the last few years and not looked a threat.

"The first time we drew 0-0 to stay in the division, for both of us it was a huge game. Thankfully that was all we needed. Last season we were nowhere near them with our 10 or 12 injuries the way they have shaped up at the start of this season.

"Don't take anything for granted. It's a brilliant result and on the back of mid-week it was really important to pick up three points. I've got to stress the resilience of that group I am really, really pleased with. If we can build on that as the season goes we can have plenty of points in the bag."

It was not a perfect performance but Stoke have found different ways to win since the start of September.

Robins said: "It's the third game in a week and although we've had the extra day you can see they have experienced players. He's got a lot of injuries, John (Eustace). Loads and loads of injuries. A key injury to Patrick Agyemang, who is a really good player as well.

"He's got a lot of injuries and that really does have an impact as we found last season when we came here and the difference between us at that stage and them is that they have got experienced Championship players that can do a job and they're warriors as well. Lewis Travis looks like he's got an ankle injury but playing him and loads of experience and David Ozoh has legs alongside him.

"They are a difficult side to play against, especially when they understand the game and can do the other side of the game really, really well.

"We gave the ball away too often. In one or two areas we looked tired but we dug out another three points. They threw everything at us, made changes and threw strikers all over the place and strikers delivering from deeper and they were going all out to try to get a result or to get back into the game.

"We defended really well when the ball came into our box. I don't remember too often when I felt the goal was really threatened. We got blocks in, we stopped crosses, we broke things up and started counter attacks pretty well but we gave the ball away in poor areas and it gave them momentum and hope and belief and just dragged the game out all the way to the end.

"It wasn't a game for the purists by any stretch of the imagination but it was one you can learn an awful lot from and learn an awful lot about your players. Again, I think we would have gone under last year. We didn't, we found resilience to see the game out and that was really pleasing on the back of a three-game week. You can't underestimate how difficult that is.

"They have had a day's less rest and we're going to have to do that at some point this season, I think we play Millwall on a Wednesday and (our weekend opponents) West Ham play on the Tuesday. It's thrown at different times of the year and it's difficult - and to play three games on the back of the international break is difficult as I've said.

"It is tough, really, really tough."