Danny Collins believes Stoke are ready to consolidate a place in the top half of the Barclays Premier League table after surviving a daunting start to the new season.

The Potters have reached the international break in 11th place, despite having to face six of the top 10 but none of the bottom six, in their opening eight fixtures.

Collins believes City's impressive start, which continued with a 1-1 draw at Everton on Sunday, shows the players will rise to the challenge of bettering last year's 12th place finish.

"It has been a difficult start," Collins, a £2.75million summer recruit from Sunderland, told The Sentinel. "Since I arrived here we have played Manchester United and Chelsea at home as well as Bolton and Everton away, which are all tough fixtures.

"It is a tight league at the minute, so if we could get a few wins on the board in this next run of games it would be nice to see us in the top half of the table and then hopefully push on from there."