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Pulis pleased to be getting respect Stoke manager Tony Pulis believes his unsung side are now getting the respect they deserve.

However the experienced Welsh boss is not content to rest on his laurels at the Britannia Stadium.

He will not relax until the 40-point mark is attained and their Premier League status secured for a third successive season.

Stoke are only five points adrift of that target following the draw with Burnley in midweek as they head into the home game against Aston Villa.

Pulis said: "I think we have been accepted more this year after staying up. People have respected us more as a club and a team.

"I don't think we have ever been spoken of as a team that is going to get relegated after the first 10 games of the season.

"We have made progress. We are a better team than we were last year. Results prove that especially away from home.

"We want to get to 40 points and then beat 45, our total last year. Then I will be doing somersaults.

"It has been a massive learning curve for me and also for the players accepting that it is a squad game and being part of a group.

"It is not just the 11 that are picked. It is the 18-19 players who get you through a season. That is becoming more and more evident." Ricardo Fuller, Glenn Whelan and Danny Higginbotham could come into contention against Villa.

In addition to a back problem Fuller has a touch of flu while Whelan (hamstring) and Higginbotham (back) are also having treatment for injuries.

Pulis added: "We will look at Ric and have a chat. After four and and a half years of working with Ric, I can't work him out.

"Luckily the opposition can't either, so I just hope he turns up and is ready to go." Meanwhile, Martin O'Neill believes Gabriel Agbonlahor can become a 20 goals a season player for Aston Villa as he closes in on his first half century for the midlands club.

Agbonlahor will go into the clash at Stoke on the 49-goal mark after recovering from the stomach upset which ruled him out of the FA Cup clash at Crystal Palace.

O'Neill has challenged the England striker to next aim for a century of goals and believes he can learn from the example of Wayne Rooney in improving his all-round game.

The Villa manager told Press Association Sport: "Gabby has obviously improved since he was a kid and first came into the Villa side.

"He has got stronger for a start and his technique is improving.

"When you get to the 22-23 age bracket, you would think that players would maybe not be able to improve their technique anymore. But I think you only have to look at Wayne Rooney.

"He has said he has started practising heading goals to make himself the complete player and I think there are lessons to be learnt." Agbonlahor's strike partner, John Carew, has put himself in contention for a starting spot after his hat-trick against Palace but it is a dilemma O'Neill welcomes.

And he is hoping the Norwegian can make a major contribution during the latter part of the campaign by being a consistent performer.

O'Neill said: "Too often there has not been that situation because players have not been available and it is nice to have that dilemma to deal with.

"It was a big boost for John to get the hat-trick and the one thing we have always said about John is that we look for that level of consistency you want in a player.

"We have seen this in the past. We sit here and we have these conversations at the time. John had a great, great end to last year, he came in and scored several goals for us.

Stoke vs Aston Villa

Last modified 22:00 13/03/10

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Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa became the latest to fall short of what has become the top four’s acid test – ordeal by Delap.

So far this season Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United have underlined their Champions League status by heading out an afternoon’s long throws from Rory Delap and then ­pinching all three points to take back home.

Winning in the noisy, hostile atmosphere of the windswept Britannia Stadium underlines that you can cut it at both aspects of the game.

You can stand tall and cope with the ferocious barrage of throws and corners. And you can conjure up a few bits of football to score some goals of your own.

And while the big three have all done it, Villa became the third of the pretenders to go home with only a point after Liverpool and Manchester City also failed to win there.

That leaves only Tottenham to make the trip next week to show whether they deserve to keep their current hold on the final Champions League place.

O’Neill was happy to take the positives of a scrappy game that at least protected his team’s unbeaten record in the Premier League in 2010.

He said: “We showed a lot of bravery, players were prepared to put their bodies on the line and that was epitomised by three or four different defenders on different occasions.

“Overall when you have not conceded from one of those Delap throws you can say it has been a satisfactory afternoon.

“Stoke is a tough place to come. I think everybody knows what to expect, but knowing and coping are two different things.

“Now we’ve got a game at Wigan on Tuesday and we have got to try to win there.”

The truth is that Villa have improved since last season - but not enough.

Last year they lost to an injury-time goal when they failed to deal with the 16th and last long throw that was hurled into their box.

Yesterday they held their nerve and discipline impressively to cope with= 19 of them, and goalkeeper Brad Friedel got through 90 minutes without ever having to make a difficult save.

But the trouble was that at the other end Stoke’s Thomas Sorensen enjoyed just as undemanding an afternoon.

For all the occasional bits of football Villa produced the nearest they came to scoring was when Richard Dunne squared the ball across the six yard box with an hour gone but Emile Heskey could not get on the end of it.

Then in the second half Stewart Downing’s shot inadvertently deflected off team-mate John Carew but hit the side-netting with Sorensen wrong-footed.

For much of the first half they were reduced to fighting fire with fire, getting Carlos Cuellar to launch long throws towards John Carew.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis said: “We have had a very demanding period and we knew that to play a quality side like Villa at the end of a three-game week would be difficult. But I thought in the last 30 minutes we were the stronger team.”

That was because Pulis made a double substitution soon after the second half started, sending on Ricardo Fuller and Dave Kitson, and between them they brought Matthew Etherington more into the game.

But when they did finally engineer a proper chance they found Dunne proving Villa’s spirit with a brave block to deny Etherington.

Robert Huth could have snatched a win in the final minute but headed Etherington’s corner over.

Turkish striker Tuncay threw a tantrum at being asked to make way for Fuller, but Pulis said: “As far as I’m concerned the only thing that matters is what is right for the team.

“As a young manager I wasn’t afraid to change senior players if I thought it was necessary and I’ve never changed. The team comes first.

“That attitude among the players has helped us to make this a very intimidating place to come to.

“If we can keep the club in the Premier League for three seasons that will give us the grounding to push on.”