Paul Lambert on Wolves' FA Cup tie at Stoke: "We can win it"

Wolves make the short trip up the M6 looking to cause a cup shock against Mark Hughes' team.

Both bosses are likely to make several changes although Lambert insisted he would name as strong a side as he thought possible.

Lambert said of the tie: "We'll go as far as we can. If you're in a competition, go and try and win it.

"We're up against a really good Premier League side but the cup sometimes has a great habit of throwing things up.

"There's pressure on us to an extent because we want to try and get through.

"But it's like a League One team coming to play us – the pressure would be on us.

"On any given day, you need things to go your way but we can do it.

"The game is great when you win a trophy or win medals – that's what the game is. That's the game of football for me.

"When you win things it's the greatest game of the world."

"The way the game is going now it's difficult for a Championship team to win it, but they can get really far," he said.

"The Premier League is as strong as it's been for many a year. Any of the top six can win the title.

"I'll name as strong a team as I can."

Almost 5,000 supporters will be at the bet365 Stadium.

Lambert hopes his team will reward them with a cup upset.

"I sense from the crowd that they know we're playing well and we've got a team full of running and energy," he added.

"If we can keep that then regardless of who plays the crowd will back us all day long.

"We're taking 4,600 fans and it'll be a great occasion for us.

"If we do what we've been doing of late then hopefully we'll have a chance."

Connor Ronan is out of the game with an ankle injury but Lambert may blood a couple more of Wolves' promising youngsters.

He again waxed lyrical about their collective talents.

"They've got the respect of the older lads, which is important, and they've earned the right to play," he said.

"You can have great talent but mentally not handle it. If you can handle 40,000 people watching you and take the ball on any occasion, that takes something.

"It's funny, I was saying to Scott Sellars, if the kids keep doing well it's my idea, if they do rotten it's Scott's fault.

"Whoever saw the kids play in the first place deserves credit. People like Scott, Jerry (Gill) and Darren (Ryan) are the ones that developed them into the players and people they are.

"All I've probably done is enhanced the feeling of 'if you're good enough you're old enough'.

"It's not as if they're in there by default or we're short of numbers. They can handle the ball."

At the other end of the age scale 33-year-old Mike Williamson hasn't been ruled out of making his first-team comeback, a year and two months after his last appearance.

"I'll see how he feels – he's trained really well the past few weeks," Lambert said. "If he's alright then I'll have that decision to make."

Wolves don't know what team Stoke City will field at the bet365 Stadium.

But whoever is in the Potters' starting XI it will be a talented – and expensively-assembled – line-up.

Stoke beat Watford 2-0 in midweek to end a five-game winless run thanks to goals from Ryan Shawcross and the in-form Peter Crouch.

The likes of Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan and Ibrahim Afellay, who joined from Inter Milan, Barcelona and Barcelona respectively, were all on the bench, as was £18million record signing Giannelli Imbula.

They, plus experienced goalkeeper Shay Given, fellow Irishman Glenn Whelan and the returning Phil Bardsley, are all candidates to come into the side.

The victory over Watford left Stoke in 11th place, with the prospects good for a fourth consecutive top-half finish in the Premier League.

Hughes may be tempted, then, to give the FA Cup a real go this year and improve on a poor recent record that has seen Stoke dumped out in the fourth round in three of the past four seasons, albeit to fellow top-flight sides Manchester City, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.

Forward Jon Walters said the Potters wouldn't be underestimating Wolves.

"It will be a difficult game, cup games against lower league sides always are," the Republic of Ireland international said.

"They will come here as the underdogs and the pressure will be on us so we need to make sure we get through it."

Walters was a key figure of the squad that reached the FA Cup final in 2011.

Stoke beat Wolves on their way to Wembley that year, beating the Molineux men in the fourth round thanks to Robert Huth's late winner.

Wolves missed a penalty through Nenad Milijas.

"It would be nice to go on a good cup run," he added.

"We have been close a couple of times before in the cup and once you have been there you always want to go back.

"There a lots of players reaching for a game and we have got a big squad so we will have to wait and see what team the manager decides to pick."