TONY PULIS has stressed once again the importance of building up the fitness of his players over the course of a rigorous pre-season campaign . . . rather than attaching too much significance to the outcome of the matches.

Stoke City's manager saw his side put six past Newcastle Town at the Lyme Valley Stadium on Saturday afternoon, while a mixture of young professionals and first team fringe players handed out a 9-0 thrashing to lower Welsh League outfit Albion Rovers under the supervision of his number two Dave Kemp on the same day.

Pulis is now preparing City for a much tougher test when they visit Championship club Derby County tomorrow evening, but insists he is more concerned with making sure his side are ready for the Premier League opener at Wolverhampton Wanderers next month.

"Results really don't mean anything at this stage of the season," he commented. "You look at last season, we lost to Newcastle Town and Nantwich, but when the season kicked off we went and got three points against Burnley.

"The players are working very, very hard at the moment in the build up to the games, and in the League that doesn't really happen. Right now, we are pushing the lads every day because fitness is very much the key thing now.

"We don't prepare for games in the same way we would for the Premier League, and that is because we want to push the lads as much as we can. Because of that, we may be a little bit tired in the games, but that is what we are hoping for at this particular time."

Pulis also singled out praise for Turkey skipper Tuncay after watching him hit a 21-minute hat-trick against Newcastle at the weekend.

"It was good to see him score the goals and I was happy for him, because he has worked very hard since coming back for training," he added.

"He is looking a lot fitter now and I will have a sit down with him this week and have a little chat about how he is feeling. It would be good to know whether he is feeling better, worse or the same as he normally feels at this sort of time during pre-season.

"It isn't just Tunny though; all of the lads have been fantastic in training and their application and attitude has really been first class. We have to keep working hard though and make sure we are ready for the big kick off in a few weeks time."