Cameron Jerome is ready to battle for a regular starting spot in the Stoke side after marking his debut for the club with a goal in Thursday's 1-1 draw with Dynamo Kiev.

Jerome was paired up front with Kenwyne Jones for the Europa League Group E opener at the Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium and put the Potters in front in the 55th minute with a composed finish before the Ukrainian hosts equalised in stoppage time.

The 25-year-old, recruited from Birmingham, will be looking to keep his place for tomorrow's Premier League clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

With fellow transfer deadline day arrival Peter Crouch, Stoke's record signing, and Jon Walters also vying for selection in attack, Jerome has stiff competition to contend with, but it is something he says he is relishing.

"I knew the challenge that I was facing when I came here because Peter signed on the same night and that was one of the attractions," said Jerome.

"There is competition for every place in the team and that brings the best out in the players. It's certainly a challenge I am relishing."

A defensively-structured Stoke team, showing eight changes from Saturday's league triumph over Liverpool, soaked up plenty of pressure from Dynamo before Jerome opened the scoring from Ryan Shotton's cross.

But after substitute Oleksandr Aliev had hit the bar for the home side, the Potters were denied all three points at the death by Ognjen Vukojevic, who stabbed in Andriy Yarmolenko's cross in the 91st minute.

Despite the late blow, the result was a commendable one for the Staffordshire outfit to take from a testing encounter and Jerome was certainly satisfied with how his first match as a Stoke player had gone.

"The important thing is that you have to take your chance when it comes along which is why it was nice to score on my debut," said Jerome.

"But it was just as pleasing to come here and get such a good result in such tough circumstances.

"We set our stall out really well in this game. We stayed resilient and strong, kept our discipline and frustrated them.

"We were unlucky to concede such a late goal, but they probably deserved a point when you consider all the chances they had."

Stoke boss Tony Pulis was delighted with the contributions of Jerome and Wilson Palacios, another deadline day signing who was making his first start.

"I was really pleased with Cameron and we believe that he can get ten to 15 goals for us this season," said Pulis.

"The really pleasing aspect about this performance is that a number of players have come in and done well to strengthen the depth of the squad which is important with so many games coming up over the next few weeks.

"I was delighted with Wilson Palacios, whose work off the ball was outstanding, especially when you consider he has hardly trained."