Tony Pulis believes Stoke's promotion to the Barclays Premier League will enable the club to tap into a new fanbase and persuade stay-away supporters to return to the Britannia Stadium.

The Potters sealed their return to the top flight after a 23-year absence following yesterday's goalless home draw against Leicester.

A season-best home crowd of 26,609 were there to witness Stoke make history, beating the previous highest attendance of 24,475 against Bristol City a fortnight ago. Those two games aside, crowds at the Britannia Stadium average out at just over 16,000 for this season.

But Pulis believes there will be more full houses for the club's first top-flight campaign since 1985.

"I think that if you speak to our chairman (Peter Coates), he will tell you that we have lost a few generations of supporters because we have been in this division for so long," said Pulis. "For a club of this size, there has been nothing happening. The club has spent most of its time in the second division and has even been down to the third tier.

"So the people of this city have had a knock. What this club needed was to get back up into the Premier League. We will now, I think, generate a new group of supporters around Stoke-on-Trent."