Mark Hughes has confessed that earning a place in Europe with Stoke City will be "very difficult" to achieve this season, but is hopeful of securing a league-high top-eight finish.
The Potters endured a torrid start to the campaign and took eight games to get off the mark with their first win, leaving them playing catch-up ever since in the top flight.
An impressive run of form soon came to a halt in December, when losing three and drawing two of their six games, but City now appear to be back on track courtesy of back-to-back league wins.
A 3-1 triumph at Sunderland on Saturday afternoon - their first win at the Stadium of Light in the Premier League era - to follow up the 2-0 win over Watford 12 days ago leaves Stoke just three points adrift of seventh place.
"At some point in the future, we want to be hopefully qualifying by league position for Europe, but this year clearly that's going to be very, very difficult," Hughes told reporters.
"The top six are going to be too far away for the rest of us to challenge for those positions, but clearly from seventh down, there's an opportunity and we are always trying to achieve things and do things that haven't been done in the Premier League for Stoke City.
"If we could get eighth or seventh, that's something that's never been done by a Stoke City team in the Premier League, so that's our challenge from now until the end of the season to see if we can do it."
Stoke, who exited the FA Cup at the hands of Wolverhampton Wanderers in-between their recent league victories, return to action next weekend with a home match against Manchester United.
Daniel Lewis
