Mark Robins says he could hardly be surprised to see Nathan Lowe pop up in a goal-scoring position as he started life back at Stoke City by getting on the scoresheet.
Lowe, who had scored 18 times on loan at Walsall in League Two, found the net with an instinctive close range finish at West Bromwich Albion, who later equaliser through Grady Diangana.
Robins said: “He’s obviously come back full of confidence from playing for Mat Sadler at Walsall. I think they’ve done a really good job with him. In return he’s done brilliantly for them, giving them goals and assists. His confidence has grown and he’s a confident boy anyway.
“He’s come back in and I can’t say it’s too much of a surprise that he’s got himself into good positions because that’s what he’s been doing week in, week out. This is a different level but he’s got himself into a really good position to score. It was pinging around the box one or two and he’s reacted really well, finished it great.
“It’s a really good start for him and I’m really pleased for him. An academy graduate coming through, still only 19 and he’s got a lot to learn but he’s done pretty well today against a difficult opponent.”
Lowe came closest to getting a second for Stoke but West Brom built pressure and eventually found a way past Viktor Johansson to level.
Robins said: “I thought we started really brightly. I thought we were good both in and out of possession. I think they’re a good team. You can see why they’re at the top end of the division. We didn’t really give them that much but they’re always a threat and we defended pretty well. We moved pretty well and we were better in possession than we’ve been.
“Going a goal up gave us a chance to maybe build a bit of momentum. We were really good value for it in the first half. I thought we played well in the first half.
“Then as the game goes and you haven’t got the second one then you’re always at the risk of conceding and the goal we conceded wasn’t a great one to be fair. We got a couple of things wrong but it wasn’t for the lack of trying.
“We were trying to get up but started to lose a bit of energy and that can be an issue because we haven’t necessarily got those players available who can make a difference when we need to change for the better at this moment in time.
“The substitutions we made later on saw us through. I thought they worked hard. I thought Junho did really well off that side and it just gave us a bit more energy up front with Niall coming on after Nathan had given us everything he possibly could. His story is ia great story today and that’s the story of the day with a very decent point at the end of it.
“They started to throw everything at us but we could have done a bit more on the counter. I’ve got to be happy with a point, coming here and getting that, how things turned out probably in the second half. First half I thought we did really, really well, in the second half there was some decent football played but it was more them attacking than us.”
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