Chelsea Reaction: Whinging Grant

On the other hand, Latics boss Steve Bruce was understandably aggrieved to have lost the game after a battling display from his side against the illuminous yellow men from London.

Here is the reaction of the two managers.

Steve Bruce

"For me we had a chance in that cup tie, and it was never going to be a classic, because of the state of the pitch, and both sets of players have put in their best efforts to make it a cup tie. The pitch is what it is, we cannot really done anything about it so we just have to get on and playing the best we can on it."

Speaking about the Chelsea opening goal. Bruce added: "If we have intentionally tried to play offside then we are at fault and you cannot take a risk when you have someone like Anelka, and that is why he has gone for the money he has gone for, and he is always playing on your shoulder, and we talked about it in training that he always plays on the verge on offside and we should be picking him up."

Meanwhile the former Manchester United captain was unhappy with the conduct of the Chelsea staff following Makelele's 5.9 rated fall and even better acting display following a brief run next to Michael Brown.

Chelsea boss Avram "Gargoyle" Grant

"I asked their bench if they saw anything because they all got up and left the bench, and not one of them saw the incident and I haven't seen the incident, and I don't mind if there is something to shout about. I think it was handbags, there was nothing in it at all," added Bruce.

Avram Grant

"It's not a pitch for the Premier League, but we kept our game, and tried to build the attack with short passes and one touch football, but it was almost impossible on this pitch.

"We live day by day, especially with the short squad we have now. The most important thing is to win games, and I don't think we will win from now until forever, it's impossible, but we keep the style of the team.

"It's told me what I thought before, the players have developed well over the last three months and have good attitude and spirit, and try to play our game and keep winning."