"For us to get our second clean sheet of the season is really important," he told BBC Radio Bristol.

"To limit a Stoke team who have been on a really good run is excellent.

"The game was difficult for both teams. A typical Championship, windy game of football. so I'm really pleased with a good point on the road.

"We knew how tough it would be because they've started the season very well here. They've got some really fast players on the top line and put some teams to the sword here.

"But we defended very well. It was a really good character performance.

Skubala added: "We came with a plan to set up and hit them on the counter-attack and we did that well at times. We just needed to hit the target with some of our chances to turn it into a win.

"We've been looking at it for a while to see if we can solidify, make ourselves stronger without the ball. And the shape change was good.

"The lads put in some really good performances. We created some excellent moments, some good box entries where we probably didn't have the last bit."

City are on the road again next Saturday at Bolton before back-to-back home games in the space of five days against Wolves and Norwich City.