Stoke City: Higginbotham remains defiant (+VIDEO)
A DEFIANT Danny Higginbotham says Stoke will not change the way they play at Wigan tomorrow ... no matter what Arsene Wenger says.
Stoke's preparations for the game (12.45pm) have been overshadowed by the Arsenal manager's claims that 'cowardly' Stoke deliberately tried to injure his players during City's 2-1 win at the Britannia Stadium last Saturday.
City defender Higginbotham dismissed Wenger's claims ... and said Stoke should apologise to no one for the hard-running, physical style which has taken them to 12th place in the Premier League.
He explained: "Why would we want to change the style of play when we have just beaten Arsenal, one of the top teams in Europe?
"We can take the comments one of two ways. We can either get annoyed or take it as a compliment.
"Personally, I take it as a compliment because I don't think things like that would have been said if we had lost the game. It would have just been a story of how Arsenal went to Stoke and, as expected, won the game. But we won ... and deservedly so."
While Higginbotham is keen to move on from Wenger's rant, he has defended team-mates Rory Delap and Ryan Shawcross, the Stoke players singled out for criticism by Wenger.
Higginbotham, who also played with Delap at Derby and Southampton, said: "I have played with Rory for the best part of eight years now and he hasn't got a malicious bone in his body.
"This will have disappointed him, but everybody within football knows the type of player Rory Delap is. He's not the sort that runs around trying to intentionally hurt anybody.
"People have to remember that Rory has just had a career-threatening injury himself. Why is he going to go out and hurt somebody?
"You couldn't accuse two more unlikely people than Rory and Ryan. I just think things like that are wrong. I think it is a little disrespectful, but people are entitled to their opinion."
Higginbotham certainly doesn't believe Delap or Shawcross will let the controversy affect their performance at Wigan tomorrow, and nor does he feel referees will treat Stoke more harshly in the light of Wenger's comments.
Stoke manager Tony Pulis has contacted referees' chief Keith Hackett for assurances that Stoke won't be unfairly treated.
Higginbotham added: "It shouldn't affect referees. They are under enough scrutiny as it is in trying to get things right, so I don't think they will be going into games with even more things on their minds."
GAME FOR A LAUGH: Danny Higginbotham training yesterday. Photo: STEVE BOULD
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