Andy Hinchcliffe delivers honest verdict on Stoke City’s hopes of reaching the play-offs

Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe has suggested that Stoke City will need to start to turn draws into victories if they are to gatecrash the play-off picture this season.

The Potters have struggled considerably with their consistency since the turn of the year.

A run of two wins in their last seven league games has led to Stoke falling down to 13th in the Championship standings.

Michael O’Neill’s side would have been hoping to secure all three points in their showdown with Nottingham Forest last weekend after staging a comeback in the second-half of this fixture.

Josh Maja’s effort cancelled out Brennan Johnson’s strike before Stoke were awarded a penalty following Brice Samba’s altercation with Steven Fletcher which resulted in the goalkeeper being dismissed by referee Leigh Doughty.

Whilst Baker managed to score from the spot to give the Potters lead, Forest snatched a point in stoppage-time thanks to a header from Ryan Yates.

Currently six points adrift of the play-off places, Stoke will be desperate to close this particular gap by picking up positive results in their upcoming clashes with Birmingham City, Luton Town and AFC Bournemouth.

Making reference to the current position that Stoke find themselves in, Hinchcliffe has suggested that they cannot afford to get too much wrong between now and the end of the campaign if they are to challenge for a top-six finish.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Sky Sports EFL Podcast about Stoke, Hinchcliffe said: “When you look at the players they have got, I know Powell has been out injured but he’s back now, Philogene-Bidace has joined, Jacob Brown, Fletcher, Wright-Phillips, you feel that there should be more goals in that team.

“The way that they have performed, they