Ray Wilkins has praised John Terry for his midweek England performance, and tipped him to do the same against Stoke in the FA Cup on Sunday.

The Chelsea captain turned in an excellent display against Egypt at Wembley on Wednesday, and now leads us at Stamford Bridge as we aim to defend the silverware we won last season.

Initially subjected to some boos from the home support, the Chelsea defender answered them superbly to win supporters round as England ran out 3-1 winners.

'Says everything doesn't it?' Wilkins responded. 'That's the way you have to do things when things aren't quite going your way, and John did that on Wednesday. His first touch he must have been dreading and then put it out of play bless him, but after that he was outstanding and turned those people round.

'He's been doing it all season for us, we have no problems whatsoever with John and the atmosphere in the camp has been superb.

'Where John plays, if he makes a mistake more often than not the opposition will get a chance of scoring a goal, and that's been the case. John's openly admitted he's made a couple of errors but that's one of those things, all players make mistakes.

'I've been thrilled with the way he's played, I thought he was excellent against Egypt and we have no qualms whatsoever, he's been in top, top form for us.'

Now Stoke arrive at the Bridge off the back of eliminating Manchester City in the fifth round, but Wilkins is determined to progress.

'We want to do really well, after thinking back to last May the joy we experienced in the dressing room at Wembley, it's fantastic,' he said, himself a winner with Manchester United in 1983. 'These guys play the game to win trophies and we want to win the FA Cup badly, but we play against a Stoke side that has had a fantastic season up to now, and they play with a lot of quality as well.

'I am sure a lot of us were thinking it might be Manchester City we were playing against on Sunday, but credit to Stoke and we're in for a very tough game.

'They have quality, what Tony Pulis has done has been quite exceptional and they've played with a lot of style at times. Yes we'll have to defend very bravely when these long throws and set plays come in but that's part and parcel of the game and we'll have to be up for that.'

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