Dean Holden says new Stoke boss will inherit ‘good group’

Stoke interim manager Dean Holden said the club’s new manager will have “a really good group of players” after they recorded a battling 1-0 win at Blackburn.

In front of the watching Alex Neil, Stoke showed both sides of their character, producing a dominant first-half display that saw them lead through Lewis Baker’s stunning 25-yard strike – the least they deserved after an energetic display that brought clear chances for Liam Delap, Aden Flint, and Jacob Brown.

After the restart, they showed heart and desire to protect the precarious lead against an improved Blackburn, and held out to record only their fourth win on the road in 2022 and their secondvictory this season, giving Stoke a platform for Neil to build on when he is officially confirmed as Michael O’Neill’s successor.

Holden believed the win showed how good Stoke can be.

He said: “There’s the basis of a really good team. They’ve not shown it enough, particularly this season. Just disappointed for him that he’s not been able to see it through because you can see today the quality we’ve got.

“First half, we knew that Blackburn play, they’ve got a nice style of football, we knew we could catch them high up the pitch, which we did countless times. Probably should have come in at 2-0 really.

“We knew they’d throw everything at us, second half. Jack (Bonham) had one save to make, in the first half, and it was a good save. Other than that, there were a load of blocks, but Jack didn’t have a lot to do.

“The new manager coming in is going to have a really good group of players and more importantly, a really good group of staff to push this club where it needs to get to.

“We showed what a good team we could be first half with the ball, and in the second half, we defended