Stoke to use Luton clash as chance for fringe players – Bowen

Shaqiri will be one of a handful of changes made by manager Mark Hughes but Bowen insists Stoke will still field a strong team against their League Two opponents.

He added that Jon Walters, who has recovered from illness, was back in the shake up for Kenilworth Road.

The 24-year-old former Barcelona player scored crucial goals in wins over Tottenham, Arsenal and Everton last season before the injury brought his campaign to a premature end.

“He played a decent amount of time tonight and he is only going to get better”, he told the club’s website.

“Even if we wanted to replicate the hustle and bustle of a normal Premier League game, the lads wouldn’t want to go in too hard on him and risk causing him any damage”, Bowen said.

“Obviously we’d have liked to have won a game but if you look at our performances they have been pleasing”.

“But thankfully we came through extra time without ever really, on the night, creating enough chances for the play that we had”.

“Credit to the guys though, they stood up and they were all great penalties”.

“The order of the day was to progress to the next round and that ” s what we have done”.