Mark Hughes: 'Stoke City must find consistency'

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has challenged his players to produce their best on a weekly basis as they bid to climb further up the table.

Hughes admits that confidence is high in the squad after their impressive 2-0 victory over Manchester City last weekend, but the Potters boss believes that his side must produce the same kind of performance every game to compete with the sides in the top half of the Premier League.

"After a performance and result like that, there's been a real crackle about the group and some banter," Hughes told reporters ahead of Saturday's meeting with West Ham United. "You sense a lot of confidence.

"But the challenge is being able to do it week in, week out, not just in one-off games.

"You've got to be able to go up against teams at the bottom, as we saw against Sunderland, where we didn't really start the game as well as we should have done."

Stoke currently occupy 11th spot, just one point behind sixth-placed Crystal Palace.