A Stamford Bridge too far..

'We'll be with you every step along the way' quite possibly is the only line you could use to describe this wonderful season and the togetherness every Stoke fan will feel towards their players right now.

Stoke City are fast becoming everyone's favourite second team, they play with passion that would make the most staunch of purists slide down off their high horse and admire. I watched the game yesterday and the first 20 minutes should have yielded at least one goal, if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of Obi Mikel then Dean Whitehead would have certainly scored or if Tuncay hadn’t taken a heavy touch or if we hadn’t wasted countless set pieces then we could argue but in all fairness, Chelsea are a very very good side.

There is no shame in being knocked out of this glorious competition by a team that boasts the footballing riches that they do. The difference between Chelsea and Man City was that the blues actually fought hard and demonstrated why they will go on to either claim the Premier League or the F.A Cup. They could even take both because Carlo Ancelotti has been quoted as saying 'I am a lucky manager' and against Stoke I think he earned that bit of luck.

Chelsea were impressive once they started to deal with Delap's missiles and they were spared anxiety by the potters not testing the petrified Hilario. It was always going to be one man that would get the home side going. It wasn’t Didier Drogba because he was more interested in rolling around on the ground like a dog enjoying having his belly rubbed. It was Frank Lampard with a trademark shot from the edge of the box that took an unfortunate and let's be honest 'lucky' deflection to send Sorensen the wrong way.

I respect everything that Chelsea did and have no gripes with their play at all but one incident did really get my goat and that is the egotistical idiot that is John Terry. It wasn’t enough for him to shave his head into a Mohawk or it wasn't enough for him to have 'John Terry Legend' banners around the ground, no he had to upstage his team by pulling his captain’s armband down in a childish justification of his own self importance.

Stoke City are 11th in the Premier League, reached the quarter finals of a major competition and now go on to play Burnley in the league where a win will put them on 37 points and clearly put some daylight between themselves and any nagging relegation worries. Tony Pulis will look on at this cup run like a proud father does when his child plays well and gets to stay up late but it's a school night and the players have to get their heads down because it’s back to the league now.

Stamford Bridge was a step too far, we just didn’t have the legs for it and for the 3,000 travelling Stoke fans who returned to the city in the middle of the night they will remember that the players who wore the red and white have done it with pride and respectability.

'We'll be with you every step along the way'