Last updated at 12:00, Sunday 19th February 2012

No messing with Stoke

Mike Holden

As one door appears to be closing, another one is being left ajar for Stoke City and we expect them to do a thoroughly professional job on Crawley in the FA Cup on Sunday as they bid to bring European football back to the Britannia Stadium next season.

The Potters are on the brink of exiting this season's Europa League after Thursday's 1-0 defeat at home to a classy Valencia side and the timing of their trip to Sussex might not be perfect ahead of next Thursday's eagerly-anticipated second leg at Mestalla.

However, there's no way the Potters will forget what brought them such glamour in the first place and the knowledge that another three cup wins could take them back into Europe will be a powerful driving force in their performance at the Broadfield Stadium.

Back Stoke to beat Crawley at 11/10

If Stoke turn up, you suspect there's little Crawley would be able to do about it but our reasoning behind this bet is also backed up by the 3-0 defeat they suffered at Swindon in midweek.

The Red Devils have now lost 6-0 on aggregate to Paolo Di Canio's men, which merely underlines how they can be dismantled by quality opposition at their own level and that humbling trip to the County Ground is liable to have an impact on their confidence.

Most of what Crawley do is helped by the unknown. They are the very definition of a surprise package. Few teams have ever played against them before and those who take them lightly tend to be caught on the hop.

Last season, they went out of the FA Cup at this point as a non-league outfit in what was heralded as a gallant 1-0 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford and you suspect the memory of that day is weighing too heavily on the prices here.

In fairness, there's much credit to be taken from 1-0 wins over Bristol City and Hull in the previous two rounds but they represent two of the Championship's bluntest attacking forces. The Potters are a team of an altogether different calibre and will carry a much bigger goal threat.

Trips to Gillingham and Derby were both billed as potential banana skins but both were cast aside rather comfortably, primarily because the Potters possess all the attributes needed to overcome whatever's asked of them physically. They do bruising as a matter of course at a level where bullying washes less, so they're hardly likely to be pushed about by some upstarts three leagues lower down.

However, they are more than just competitive and it's their class in hurting teams with the ball that is being grossly overlooked by the layers.