Erstwhile Super Eagles skipper, John Obi Mikel says paramount before him now would be how to steer Stoke City to its first home win this Saturday.

The former Trabzonspor midfielder kept the captain band as Stoke rallied back to a 2-2 draw with Barnsley on Wednesday night, but Mikel believes picking three maximum points this weekend will be key to turning bet365 stadium into a fortress.

 “The aim is to not concede a lot and once we’ve done that. We need to find that way to create chances and score goals. We’ve tried to build a solid defence which we can build on. That’s the aim.“We want to get that first home win. Hopefully we can do that on Saturday and kick on from there.” said Mikel in an interview with his club’s official website.The former Chelsea legend who is expected to captain Stoke again this weekend in the absence of Sam Clucas (calf), Joe Allen (Achilles) and Ryan Shawcross (calf) therefore charged his teammates to remain focus ahead of Saturday’s game against Brentford.

“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and if we keep creating chances and doing well we’ll win games.Recounting his experience against Barnsley, Mikel admitted that Stoke did not do enough to clear their lines properly.“Well, the aim was to win the game but it was one of those games when our defending wasn’t right.

“Overall we’ve been solid since the season started and defending well but this was one of the nights when you have a bit of a loss in concentration and we conceded two uncharacteristic goals, not what you get from us.“We fought back, got two goals back and we got a point.” he told stokecityfc.com.

source:- fcnaija