By John Acres BBC Radio Stoke in Austria

Kitson scored in Stoke's 3-1 defeat by St Pauli

Today Tony Pulis presented everyone on tour with a test of bottle, and I'm sorry to say I failed.

It has been raining heavily since 0500 CET when a thunderstorm woke most of the squad from their slumbers.

White water rafting was the plan for the afternoon, but all that was thrown into doubt with the torrential rain, a temperature of just five degrees centigrade, and snow on higher ground.

At lunch you could hear nervous whispers from some of the players; "I heard someone died doing it last week," said one.

"Three people were injured at the one we're doing the other day," said another.

When the time came to leave TP gathered everyone in the internet room, and told us all to stand against a wall.

He explained that the water level was two metres higher than normal and the instructors were not prepared to go in the water with us.

He said the rafting company's insurance would not cover them, and it could be dangerous.

Then came the test. TP asked anyone who was up for it to stand against the wall on the other side of the room, and for those that were not to stay where they were.

Andy Griffin, Danny Higginbotham, Danny Pugh, Andy Wilkinson, Richard Cresswell, Rory Delap, Ryan Shawcross, along with most of the staff moved.

Everyone else, including yours truly, stayed where they were, and because there were more people on my side of the room, rafting was cancelled, and a 5-a-side tournament arranged instead.

Kitson took his goal well, tucking it to the keeper's right after going through one-on-one. If his young family can settle in the area, and he can get an early goal in the Premier League, he could still turn out to be a success at Stoke and put a wretched first season at the Britannia Stadium, in which he failed to score a competitive goal, behind him John Acres

What do you think? Was TP really going to let everyone go rafting with no insurance in rough conditions four weeks before the start of the new season, or was it a test of bravery?

Did he want to see what some of the players were made of? My feeling is that it was the latter, but I'll never be sure.

"I knew which wall you'd be on," Pulis said to me afterwards with a smile on his face.

I am quite relieved. I would have probably ended up in a raft with Rudgey, Spinksy and Giff the kit man, so drowning would have been a distinct possibility.

The players seem in good spirits despite Friday night's 3-1 defeat by German second division team St Pauli in Irdning.

They seemed a little leggy, a little stiff, tired after two days of tough running in fierce heat.

TP used 22 players in total, a different 11 in each half. The second half team performed the better, with Matty Etherington, Liam Lawrence, Rory Delap, and goalscorer Dave Kitson particularly catching the eye.

Matthew Etherington runs at the St Pauli defence

Kitson took his goal well, tucking it to the keeper's right after going through one-on-one. If his young family can settle in the area, and he can get an early goal in the Premier League, he could still turn out to be a success at Stoke and put a wretched first season at the Britannia Stadium, in which he failed to score a competitive goal, behind him.

I might be feeling a little unwell, I've just turned down the offer of an hour on the driving range to write this, and I have not even visited the pro-shop or played the course at our hotel.

Pulis, John Rudge and Mark O'Connor played yesterday, but it was far too hot for golf according to Mark, and TP retired to a sun-lounger after nine.

I'll leave you with two things that made me laugh out loud today - reading on the Oatcake message board that Liam Lawrence had been sent home from the tour because he had 'accidentally' super-glued a pigeon to his shin, and overhearing a conversation between Andrew Davies and Michael Tonge at lunch.

"What's veal then?" said Davies. "I don't know, it's some kind of meat I think," replied Tonge. Genius.

From Austria,
John

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