Charlie Adam will not be changing his ways

Charlie Adam says trial by television won’t change the way he plays.

The Scotland star received a three-game FA ban for violent conduct after being found guilty of stamping on Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud last Saturday.

But while Stoke City chairman Peter Coates has described the move as ‘appalling’, the midfielder himself is philosophical about being singled out for retrospective justice.

“It doesn’t bother me. I just get on with it,” says Adam.

“It doesn’t matter what game you’re in or the opposition. It’s about stamping your authority on the game and that’s what I try to do.

“You dish it out and you get it back. And, fair play, if it happens I take it. At the end of the day, I want to be competitive and I want to win.”

It is an approach that finds favour with club manager, Mark Hughes.

Since taking over at the Britannia at the end of last season, Hughes has made the 28-year-old Dundonian one of the focal parts of his side.

Adam continues: “As a player, when a new manager comes in, you just hope your style fits into the way the manager’s thinking.

“Fortunately enough in this case, it does and I have reaped the benefit of following his approach by playing regularly.

“When you do that, your form comes back and I have been playing well. I have scored seven goals so far this season and have enjoyed linking up with Peter Crouch.

“He is the perfect striker for the way we want to play, and we have been combining well and getting a few wins, notably the victories over Arsenal and Manchester United. Hopefully I can keep playing the way I’m doing.”

Things have been a lot tougher at international level for Adam, who played just the last 15 minutes in Warsaw but was involved in setting up the winning goal.

Scotland legend Kenny Dalglish recently picked him out as a player with the technical skills to help lead the country to the Euros.

In order to do that, though, he will first need to establish his place in the team.

“Kenny spoke very well of me, which was brilliant to read because he is someone who knows the game, and he knows our players,” says Charlie.

“But it’s the manager who makes the decisions, not Kenny Dalglish. I’m trying to get into the Scotland team, but it is the toughest competition for a place in the team since I’ve been involved.

“The quality of player you see is very good. There are four good midfielders here at the moment, but there could easily be another four or five behind us.

“So when you do get a chance, you have to take it and perform well.”

If Adam can cement his place in Gordon Strachan’s plans and manages to score one of his special strikes in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, he will celebrate, as always, by pointing up to the skies in a gesture of respect to his late father, Charlie Senior.

“You have a routine and I stick to what I do. It works for me and I’m happy with that,” he says.

“When you have somebody like that in your life, whom you then lose, the feeling can never disappear overnight. And it never will with my dad.”