Ben Wilmot delighted with the positive impact of fans this season

Stoke City defender Ben Wilmot has admitted that the support of fans this season has majorly helped to keep the club in the Championship.

The Potters confirmed safety with Saturday's 1-0 win at Southampton, but the 24-year-old says the team might not have survived relegation without the backing of their faithful:

"One of the positives of being in this scrap is that the fans have really come together and decided that they need to get behind us, so the atmosphere at home has been really good.

"We always travel in numbers away, but I feel certainly towards the end of this season, it's been next level. Saturday was unreal, Sheffield Wednesday was unreal.

"I've seen a lot on Twitter about the Wednesday fans saying they were by far the best set of away fans that have been at Hillsborough this season and I'm not surprised because the noise was crazy and it does help us a lot.

"I know players say it all the time, but I don't think fans quite understand how much they can impact a team. We're all really grateful and they've certainly played their part in us being safe."