Luke Graham has insisted that Stoke City are "not looking back" after pulling themselves clear of the early-season trouble that threatened to derail their Championship campaign before it had really begun.

The Potters lost their first three league matches of the season, a run that raised genuine questions about whether Mark Robins could bed in a heavily rebuilt squad quickly enough. Since then, the picture has changed almost completely. Six wins from their last eight games, with the only defeat coming deep in added time against Middlesbrough, has carried Stoke up to sixth in the table after 11 matches.

The system switch that changed everything

The turnaround has a clear starting point. Following a 4-1 loss to Wolves at the end of August, Robins moved to a back three, and Stoke have looked a different side. They have beaten Norwich, Charlton, Watford, Sheffield United and Bolton (the last of those with ten men), and picked up a draw at Cardiff. That is a sequence that would flatter most sides in the division, and it has given the club something genuine to build on.

Graham, a summer signing who is 22, has grown steadily into the system and scored his first goal for the club in Saturday's 1-0 win at Derby. Speaking to BBC Radio Stoke, he was candid about the early difficulties of settling into a new formation and a new club.

"For all the signings it was going to take a bit of time to adjust, especially having the system and coming in a few games after the start of the season," he said. "But as a group we adapted to that instantly really and I think we've not looked back since."

That word "instantly" is worth pausing on. The numbers suggest the adaptation was not quite instant, given those three opening defeats, but Graham's broader point holds: once the back three was established, Stoke clicked. Whether that credit sits primarily with the tactical change, the personnel settling, or simply a run of manageable fixtures is harder to say. We do not have the granular defensive data to be certain which factor has mattered most, and honesty demands we note that.

Character as much as quality

Graham was keen to stress the dressing-room environment as a driver of the recent run, which is a familiar line from footballers but carries some weight here given what Stoke managed against Bolton. Holding on with ten men, grinding out a 1-0 win against a side chasing the same upper-half territory, is precisely the kind of result that separates promotion candidates from also-rans.

"That shows the kind of characters we've got in the dressing room," Graham said. "It's real tight, there's a togetherness, it's like a big family so we know going into any game we're going to fight throughout."

He also pointed to the variety of opposition Stoke have handled in this run as a reason for cautious confidence. "We've faced a lot of different styles of football and I think we've handled the role in just about every game, so it's just about keeping that consistency and not getting too far ahead of ourselves."

What sixth place actually means at this stage

Sixth after eleven games is encouraging, but it is not a story in itself. The Championship table at this point in the season has a habit of looking very different by February. What does give Stoke's position credibility is the manner of the results rather than just the outcomes. Winning without the full complement of players, keeping clean sheets, scoring late: those are markers of a side with depth and resilience rather than one riding a short-term wave.

Graham, who won his first Scotland cap at the start of October, is himself a symbol of that depth. A young centre-back operating in a back three that demands intelligence as much as athleticism, he is maturing into the role at exactly the right moment for his club.

The next test will say considerably more about whether Stoke belong in the conversation about automatic promotion or whether the play-off places represent a more realistic ceiling. For now, the mood in the camp is clear. They are not looking back. Whether the division is about to force them to is the question that matters.

Frequently asked

How many games have Stoke City won recently?
Stoke have won six of their last eight Championship games, with their only defeat in that run coming in added time against Middlesbrough.
What position are Stoke City in the Championship table?
After 11 matches, Stoke City sit sixth in the Championship table.
Who is Luke Graham at Stoke City?
Luke Graham is a 22-year-old centre-back who joined Stoke City during the summer. He has become a regular in Mark Robins' back three and scored his first goal for the club in the 1-0 win at Derby.