Tony Pulis bemoans slow start

Stoke City manager Tony Pulis has described his side's performance in the first half of their Premier League clash with Southampton this afternoon as "shocking".

Stoke went into the break trailing the relegation candidates 3-1, but launched a second-half fightback with 10 men to rescue a point in a 3-3 draw.

Pulis believes that his side may have still been congratulating themselves for beating Liverpool 3-1 on Boxing Day in the first half, but praised their performance after the interval.

"In the first half I thought we were shocking, I didn't think we deserved anything. We got the goal, and it was a great goal from Kenwyne (Jones). He most probably missed an easier chance - I still can't believe he's missed it," said Pulis.

"But I thought Southampton were the better team, they deserved their lead. I think we were still tapping ourselves on the back from our performance against Liverpool.

"And then second half we came out and threw everything at them, even with 10 men I thought we were the team that were going to go on and score more goals."

The result leaves Stoke eighth in the Premier League table, while Southampton drop into the relegation zone.