Tony Pulis brushed aside the loss of Stoke's 12-match unbeaten league run at promotion rivals Charlton on Tuesday night to insist: "We'll be back."

Pulis is backing his players to recover from the setback of their late loss at The Valley in time for back-to-back clashes against fellow top-six hopefuls Cardiff and Wolves over the next 10 days.

"The biggest thing now is to bounce back," said Pulis. "You have to put a defeat like this into perspective because outside of West Brom I think they (Charlton) have the strongest squad in our league.

"They have spent a lot of money and have a lot of so-called quality players in depth, but I didn't think they looked that much better than us."

Pulis revealed efforts were still underway to introduce new blood into his squad before the end of the January transfer window, disclosing: "We've inquired about four or five players. I'm not saying we will bring four or five in because they might all have been for the same position. I think we need the same type of player in respect of commitment and energy that we already have, but with a bit more quality. Right through the park we've got to be ready to embrace anybody who comes along with those qualities."

Andy Griffin faces a one-match ban at Wolves on Saturday week after picking up his fifth booking of the season late on last night. However, Mama Sidibe could be available for Saturday's home game with Cardiff (12.30pm) after Mali were knocked out of the African Cup of Nations in the group stages last night.

Click below for full article