Uncomfortably primitive or bravely durable? Wham-bam or playing to their strengths? A positive advertisement for the Coca-Cola Championship or a means to ensure promotion?

Few teams will split public opinion and aggravate the aesthetes more than Stoke City if they are promoted to the Barclays Premier League. Stoke rarely impress in terms of style and elegance, yet they are perched proudly at the top of the league table, and need a draw at home to Leicester City on Sunday to return to the top flight after a 23-year absence. They would have got there already, but for Hull City’s late winning goal on Saturday.

Bryan Robson and Dave Jones have been among the rival managers who have sniped about Stoke’s crude style during the season, but only Jones has been able to hold his head high after Cardiff City reached the FA Cup Final. West Bromwich Albion’s match programme described Stoke’s game plan as “squeezing the life out of what used to be known as football”, but at least they can take the moral high ground if they beat Southampton this evening and secure promotion themselves.

Scrap, tackle, one touch and then launch the ball to one of the eight outfield players above 6ft, or hope that one of Rory Delap’s long, flat throw-ins causes chaos: there is not much room for fluency. While Bolton Wanderers, the most “pragmatic” team in the Premier League, have stayed up with such tactics for the past seven seasons, other promoted teams, such as Crystal Palace, Watford and Sunderland, have found the style too limited against better opponents.

Not that Stoke care. Tony Pulis, their manager, described it as “winning beautifully” and Liam Lawrence, the midfield player, argued that it has been vindicated by results. “I don’t care what people say about us,” Lawrence said. “If we are promoted then it is egg on their faces and not ours. We play to our strengths, which is long ball sometimes. It can work.”

With a number of players on loan, Pulis will have a busy summer bolstering his squad. As Watford discovered last season, it is not easy to persuade players to sign when they know that a dogfight to avoid relegation looms.

The win at Colchester was gained after Richard Cresswell got a faint touch to a Lawrence scuff, the only goal of an insipid match. “We have a good work ethic, Pulis has some fantastic ideas and knows how to get his point across – quite firmly,” Cresswell said.

Colchester, already relegated as the bottom team, pressed for an equaliser only in stoppage time. It was a strange, anticlimactic end to Layer Road, where football has been played since 1907 and has been home to Colchester since they were formed in 1937. The club will move to a 10,000 all-seat stadium on the edge of the town for the start of next season.

“We wanted to say goodbye to the old ground and give people some happy memories,” Geraint Williams, the Colchester manager, said.

Colchester United (4-4-2): D Gerken – P Ifil, C Coyne, A Virgo (sub: B Balogh, 43min), J White – K Duguid (sub: C Platt, 89), D Hammond, J Jackson, M Elito – K Lisbie, S Vernon (sub: E Sheringham, 62). Substitutes not used: K Izzet, M Cousins.

Stoke City (4-4-2): C Nash – C Riggott, L Cort, R Shawcross, C Dickinson – L Lawrence, G Whelan, R Delap, R Cresswell – M Sidibe (sub: F Ameobi, 79), R Fuller. Substitutes not used: S Simonsen, A Wilkinson, D Pugh, S Pearson. Booked: Ameobi.

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