Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has heaped praise on Stephen Ireland and has encouraged him to have a better year after the midfielder scored two goals in their FA Cup third-round win over Wrexham.

Ireland has hardly featured this season, with a mixture of injury problems and the form of others, such as Bojan, keeping him out of the team, and his future at the club has been questioned.

However, Hughes told reporters: "Stephen has been really unlucky, he arguably started pre-season in the best form of anybody, then got injured, went out of the team and found it hard to get back in, then got injured again. So it has been stop-start for him.

"But hopefully this year might be a bit more productive for him. He will always get you a goal, he is a good finisher and will be encouraged by that."

Ireland joined Stoke on a permanent deal from Aston Villa 12 months ago after an initial loan spell.

Written by
Charlie Bennett