The Sports Psychology Blog
This Sports Psychology blog comes as Stoke City manager Tony Pulis sees his side fail to beat Blackpool, despite the visitors improvised preparations for the game.
Football: Tony Pulis - Traffic Jam!
"I had to drag my players in from the warm up, we were all sitting around for half an hour, and then I had to send them out again." Tony Pulis complaining about the thirty minute delay in the kick-off to the Brittania Stadium match against Blackpool. A delay caused by the closure of the nearby M6.
It is understandable that the Stoke City manager is frustrated. He has seen his side throw away the chance to build a lead at the top of the Championship. And this against opposition who had to contend with a four hour coach journey. For a trip that should have taken seventy-five minutes. And then Blackpool manager Simon Grayson had to deliver his team-talk on the team bus, as his side scrambled pieces of toast and chicken down them.
So, in other words, both sides were affected by the delay in kick-off. But it seems to have upset Tony Pulis more than Simon Grayson. The art of good management is to be able to control those things you can control. And not be affected by those things which you can't control.
It is not referee's Mike Pike's fault, that Stoke City failed to defeat Blackpool. It is not the fault of the M6. The game started at the same time for both teams. The problem for Tony Pulis was that matters occured, that were out of his control. And for a man who likes to be in control, it took him out of his comfort zone. This was a 'what-if' he had not mentally prepared for.
Pulis has done an excellent job in taking the Potters to the top of the Championship. But the real work starts now. He and his team are heading into the unknown. The closer Stoke City get to the Premier League, the more out of their comfort zone they will go. It will be the managers job to defuse this pressure. But firstly, Tony Pulis will have to defuse the pressure in himself.
