`Of course!' -Boss answers big question on Stoke City
Stoke City are at Reading to re-launch Championship safety bid
Martin SpinksStoke City correspondent
Michael O'Neill didn't need to draw breath before answering the one about whether Stoke City would win their battle against the drop.
They head to Reading for their Championship re-start five places and three points above the bottom three.
A potentially perilous position, but one looking a lot healthier than it once did.
And ahead of the first of nine remaining games, O'Neill was asked if his players would do it.
"Of course, I am confident of beating the drop," he said without a moment's hesitation.
"I was confident of beating the drop in November, that's why I took the job to be honest.
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"We are in the loftiest position we have been in this season. We are still in a vulnerable position, but I have a lot of confidence in the players.
"There has been a lot of consistency in the team in a lot of the work we have done.
"Hopefully, that bears fruit in the next nine games as well. As we have talked to everybody from the outset, we have tried to give players consistency. I believe consistency breeds confidence within players."
O'Neill can take credit for lifting Stoke off the foot of the table - where he found them in early November - and leaving them top of the eight clubs seemingly in danger of going down.
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"I look back over our form over the 22 games. I think we would be seventh in the table and I think since January we are about third in the table.
"So, we are not playing, on form, like a team that is in the bottom echelons of the league. But that is where we are at. That is the reality of the situation, that is what the league table tells us.
"So we have to maintain the form we have had and if possible improve on it. There is always room for improvement and to make sure we don't fall back into the bottom three.
"If that situation arises then we have to have the strength of character to get out of it. You are only ever in control of your own result.
"We saw that at times during the season where we could have good results and the teams that maybe we didn't expect around us to win, did win.
"Equally, sometimes when we had a poor result we maybe weren't as damaged by it as we feared.
"So, I don't envisage that pattern will change very much in the next nine games."