Riera pleased with reaction

The winger says the dejection shown in the dressing room after the draw shows that the players have genuine belief they are title contenders and they will aim to prove that in the next game.

"Saturday showed me the character of this team," said Riera.

"When I walked into the dressing room after the game everyone was devastated that we had only drawn a difficult away game.

"Stoke have a very good record at home and lots of teams have struggled to beat them at the Britannia Stadium but we are top of the league and we had hoped to go there and win.

"But we will remember this feeling and we will give everything for it not to happen again."