Hughes wants Walters to stay

Norwich fought back, but after Russell Martin equalised, Butland was in inspired form, saving from Graham Dorrans (twice), Nathan Redmond and former Stoke striker Cameron Jerome. The one-cap England international’s performance was even more heroic given that he had broken his left index finger at Friday’s training.

“He had to be honest with me when he said he could play”, noted Hughes.

“He will have to pay with a bit of pain for a couple of weeks, but he will be fine”.

“It is still early days in his career, but he is doing everything right at the moment”.

“But if we don’t, then we will probably keep him and let his contract run down”.

The hosts piled on the pressure in the second half, but Stoke, aided by a string of superb saves from goalkeeper Jack Butland, held on to claim a share of the spoils.

Hughes was happy enough with the contribution of Swiss worldwide Shaqiri, who was signed from Inter Milan for £12million.

The Potters are now into their eighth season in top flight football, and now have a line-up that include some big signings like Bojan Krkíc, Xherdan Shaqiri, Ibrahim Afellay and Marco van Ginkel (on-loan from Chelsea).

Hughes accepted the weather, which saw two stoppages for drinks break, played a part in the end result. He needs to play well for us.

Norwich have taken four points from their opening three games having beaten Sunderland 3-1 last weekend, and Neil believes his side are proving the doubters wrong.

“It feels good but we have some work to do this week to get the swelling down and keep improving it”.

Stoke City settled for a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur also last Saturday at the White Hart Lane as they still failed to clinch their first win of the season, via BBC Sport. It’s obviously a good thing to have hungry players, players who are playing for something more than just their pay cheque.

Prediction: Last weekend’s comeback against Spurs seems to have created a new sense of energy around the Stoke City camp, and the debut of Shaqiri should only add to that enthusiasm.