Goalscorer John Terry believes the Chelsea team deserves credit for bouncing back from the Manchester City defeat by overcoming underrated opposition in Stoke City.

It was the captain's second-half header that went a long way to sealing the quarter-final tie against Premier League opposition and afterwards Terry hoped the win began to make amends for the heavy home defeat the previous weekend.

'I said in my programme notes that as a player and a fan you learn to lose games but we don't like to lose in the manner that we did against Man City,' he said.

'We owed it to our supporters who paid a lot of money for the game last week and deserved a lot better than that. We gave them a lot better against Stoke.

'Stoke are very good at set-pieces but they can play as well,' he added.

'They knock the ball about and physically they are very good and they don't get enough credit. They are well-organised, very effective in what they do but at times they play football and they make it difficult. But on a bit of a dodgy pitch we played well and bounced back from a really disappointing performance last week.

'It has been a good week. It was good to get away with England, play 90 minutes and then comeback here and show the fans how disappointed we were by how we played last week.'

Terry celebrated his goal, the second in a 2-0 win, by making it clear to everyone that he still wears the Chelsea captain's armband. After the game he explained his celebration further.

'I was just giving the Stoke fans a bit of banter. That was all. They were giving me a bit of stick and I was just giving a bit back and that is what football is about. They are entitled to do what they do and so am I on the pitch as long as they take it in the right manner. I am sure they did.

'You just get on with it as a player. One way to get through it is to play well and to score was the icing on the cake. Chelsea have been very supportive and I would like to thank everyone for that, but the main thing was we came back from a disappointing result and performance last week

'Now we have a tough draw in the semis. Villa did well to come back from 2-0 down in their quarter-final and they are going to want to go one better than being beaten in the final of the Carling Cup.'