Osaze battles for Stoke’s shirt

Returnee striker, Osaze Odemwingie, is ready to stake claim to recapture a place in Stoke’s league team after passing a significant milestone in his return from injury.
The forward made his first competitive start for 13 months when he played in the 1-0 Capital One Cup win at Fulham on Tuesday night.
It has been a long road back after rupturing ligaments in his left knee, but now he has the confidence he can push his way back into Mark Hughes’s thinking.
He said: “The only problem is match fitness. I pushed myself at Fulham to do accelerations forward and back. That’s the only problem, everything else is fine.
“I haven’t scored in a year, I hadn’t started a game in a year, so I was really pleased to get a start in a proper game.
“It would have been even better if I scored, but winning was more important. Eighty minutes for me was just what I needed.
“I’m looking forward to fighting for a position and playing some games in the league. I think I’m ready to kick on and go all the way.”
The 34-year-old will be in Stoke’s squad when they host Bournemouth at the Brit.
He knows he will have to fight for a spot in attack, with Jon Walters, Joselu, Bojan and Mame Diouf all rested in midweek.
Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri were also only used from the substitutes’ bench.
“We have a lot of good players who were rested in the cup who will be back for Bournemouth,” added Odemwingie.
“The manager has a headache for selection every week and I don’t think where we are in the table reflects the strength of the group.
“But it’s important to start somewhere and it was good to get that first win in 90 minutes this week. We had missed that feeling of winning a game.”
Odemwingie hopes that result will kick-start a campaign which has started slowly.
He said: “It was very important. You know what a victory does. We’ve been waiting for a win this season, so I can’t call it a small win. It was important and it could be a turning point.
“The longer you go without a win, a bit of nervousness keeps in even if you’re a strong group.
“We could be better off in the league, perhaps we have deserved a few more points, but now we just have to turn things around and build on the result at Fulham.
“I’m glad we are at home and hopefully we can get that first league victory.”
The Nigeria forward is also still waiting to celebrate his first goal since becoming the first Stoke City player to score at a World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014.
That almost came at Craven Cottage only for him to lift a shot in a one-on-one over the keeper and the crossbar.
“It was a great pass from Marko Arnautovic … and I don’t know what got in my head,” he said.
“If you score a goal like that your confidence doubles if not trebles and I felt I could do it, I just went a bit too hard on the chip.
“The wedge wasn’t the right club, a little touch with no loft would have been better!”