Skipper Andy Griffin is urging supporters to keep believing following last night's 2-1 loss at home to promotion rivals Crystal Palace.

The defeat dented City's automatic promotion aspirations, but the former Newcastle star insists everything is still there to play for.

"Please keep the faith, we are only one point off top spot and we have to keep believing that we can win this league," he told Stoke City World.

"Obviously things are now out of our hands and we need to hope that a couple of results go our way.

"We have given ourselves an uphill struggle now, but can we win four out of four, I hope so and we still believe we can do."

The Potters dominated large periods of the game, but with a lack of luck clearly evident Griffin admits it just wasn't meant to be.

"We are very disappointed. Obviously the old cliché of a game of two halves comes to mind.

"We dominated long periods of the game but we didn't have that little bit of luck we need, and to be honest we haven't had that luck for quite a while now.

"That's three home games now, a defeat and two draws and that is simply not good enough.

"We could have got a point or even won the game but it just didn't seem like it was ever going to happen for us.

"There are a lot of disappointed lads in that dressing room including myself, but we are still in there and just one point off top."

City travel to the Ricoh Arena on Saturday to face struggling Coventry City and Griffin says it is the perfect opportunity to get the defeat out of their system.

"I think we have just got to try and get this game out of our system and Saturday is the chance to do that.

"It isn't all doom and gloom, I understand that it does feel like that now but there are twelve points to play for and we will be doing our damndest to win all of them games.

"We are still in a great position, and our performance in the second half was probably the best we have played for quite a while.

"We have to remain positive and not get too pessimistic because it is all still there to play for."