Stoke’s magnificent run in the Cup was brought to a halt at Stamford Bridge as a suspension and injury depleted side were comfortably beaten 2-0 by current FA Cup holders Chelsea.

There's always next year... ©Getty Images

The season and most importantly, February seemed to catch us up as the team that did line up seemed to not be at the races and understandably so given their recent schedule. Stoke were missing the suspended Shawcross as well as the injured Higginbotham, Etherington and Beattie.

Pulis started with Faye and Huth in the middle of defence, the latter being handed the captain’s armband to face his former club, as well as continuing with his faith in Whelan in the middle alongside Delap, with Tuncay continuing out on the left. Stoke started lively enough and a couple of Rory specials early on culminated in a Whitehead shot being cleared off the line, aside from that though we didn’t really prove much of a threat and to be honest looked pretty knackered.

Chelsea on the other hand look very useful and are like a more expensive and technical version of Stoke, by that I mean that they are built on a solid back line and are very organised often mixing their play up and not being afraid of the direct ball.

Manager Rating – 8.5 – I think the side pretty much picked itself for this one given injuries and suspensions and the substitutions he made were ones most were calling for – Tunny clearly wasn’t happy with being withdrawn but as we know Pulis has enough strength and conviction to make the right decisions for the team and the lad was having an absolute mare.

Player Ratings

Sorensen – 8.5 – Man of the Match – Tommy looked a lot more assured and as per my last report looks to have put his recent self inflicted blip behind him. Some good positional play as well as a handful of excellent saves kept the score line respectable. He was unlucky for both goals as he looked on course to get to them both before their cruel deflections.

Wilkinson – 7 – Wilko seems to be getting his confidence back slowly after an awful spell of late and was responsible for a couple of vital blocks. Unfortunately, it’s sad to say that it’s all too clear with his distribution he isn’t a realistic long term option for that position.

Huth – 7.5 – The Captain for the day seemed to revel in his swift rise to prominence and organised proceedings well at the back alongside the fit again Faye. That said, the big fella lost Terry for the second goal but that’s no great shame given the excellent delivery of the ball and the grateful recipient.

Faye – 7.5 – Didn’t do much wrong, I have criticised Abdy for making silly mistakes or getting pulled out of position recently but he was much better this week and played 90 mins for the first time in a while so hopefully we will see him back in the side for good with Huth moving back to the right.

Collins – 7 – A decent game for Danny, used the ball well going forward but was restricted by the poor cover offered by Tuncay. Some good tackles but still positionally lacking, often drifting away at the most important of times.

Whitehead – 7 – Not Dean’s best game, deployed on the right for this game he didn’t get forward as much as he would have liked and was guilty of giving the ball away in the box after trying to control on his chest, saved only by Anelka’s poor finish.

Whelan – 7.5 – Another positive showing from Glenn but unfortunately had to go off with a Hamstring injury that Pulis has put down to having an International Friendly only a few days before. Glenn really seems to be enjoying his extended run and is constantly looking to receive the ball and use it, his confidence has soared and it’s a shame we will now be without him for a spell.

Delap – 7 – Did as he was asked but like much of the rest of the midfield stood still as the ball was moved around with pace in the middle, that said, he made a few interceptions, but when isolated out wide was lacking for pace.

Tuncay – 4 – Tuncay may as well not have been on the pitch. This was the worst performance from the Turk since he joined, his touch was awful and his insistence on simply running into people or being brushed off the ball reached a whole new level of infuriation. He seems to play a lot better at home against the ‘lesser’ sides when we are more of an attacking threat – I was really disappointed with this performance though and hope he does something about it.

Sidibe – 6 – Mama struggled against the strength and height of Terry and Alex and every ball was met by both contesting the header against him. Consequently, he won very little in the air (not that we stopped playing it up there) and made little impact at the top end of the pitch. A less than convincing performance was capped with a truly awful attempt at a cross into the box along the floor that went out of play behind the goal when he had no pressure on him.

Fuller – 6.5 – Ric looked tired and with Mama having no joy got more and more frustrated, his best chance coming late on in the 91st minute. I think we might see Ric rested as he has worked tirelessly over the last few weeks and it showed.

Substitutes

Lawrence – 6 – Liam hasn’t looked good since the Manager had an alleged fallout with Beattie and once again failed to take his chance. He looked one paced and his constant arguing at decisions and not playing to the whistle again annoyed me.

Pugh – 7 – Danny has looked composed and eager when he has been involved of late and this was much the same. He has a comfort and ease on the ball which is unfortunately lacking at times within the side and I’ve been happy with his inclusion in the team. I think he works best in the middle though in the Whelan area as opposed to trying to fill in on the left.

Kitson – 7 – Dave looked eager once more and had only been on a minute or so before he played a lovely reverse pass behind the full back for Pugh to run on to. Other than that one move he didn’t see too much of the ball but perhaps more importantly showed a little seen determination to get it back.