test2wa

F.A. Cup

John Terry saluted Chelsea's team spirit as they came from behind to beat Southend 4-1 in their FA Cup third-round replay.

The Blues and their Brazilian coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had been under pressure following the 3-0 defeat at the hands of Barclays Premier League rivals Manchester United, who have now moved about them in the table after beating Wigan last night.

Scolari's men - minus axed striker Didier Drogba - rallied after going behind to a goal from Shrimpers skipper Adam Barrett in a match which had initially been called off by referee Chris Foy because of fog at Roots Hall.

Michael Ballack equalised a minute before the break, with Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka making the tie safe before Frank Lampard added a fourth in stoppage time.

Terry hailed the team's efforts. He said: "We have been under-performing recently, and I think the manager was right to criticise us for not fighting enough.

"The Southend game was an opportunity for us, and we showed great spirit.

"It was not the best of starts - but after 30 minutes we upped the tempo in the second half, and I thought we fully deserved the win."

Despite the exclusion of Drogba - a reported transfer target for Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan - the Ivory Coast international remains a "very valuable member" of Chelsea's squad, according to assistant first team coach Ray Wilkins.

The decision to leave out the striker was nothing more than tactical.

"That was just a selection policy of Felipe," he said.

"We have a very big squad, some exceptional players and Felipe felt Nicolas was the man to take the field tonight.

"Whether Didier will be included at the weekend, we don't know, but he is certainly a very valuable member of our staff.

"I do not know whether Felipe has met with Didier, but from what I have seen on the training pitch, it certainly does not give to the fact they are at breaking point."

Wilkins added Scolari was "as happy as Larry" with the result.

He said: "Our spirit has been fantastic, and you could see that with the way they played.

"The atmosphere around the place was we really wanted to put Sunday right and we did that."

Chelsea were again undone by a set-play, when a corner led to Southend's opening goal - making a mockery of Scolari's new zonal system.

It is something, though, which the Blues coaching staff are determined to rectify.

"We will try everything to get it right, whether it be zonal, man-to-man marking, sticking a coach in front of it, whatever. We will try the lot until we get the right solution," Wilkins said.

"When you are dealing with the quality and intelligence of footballer we have, it is never a gamble to change it."

The only down side to the performance was the loss of winger Joe Cole late on to a knee problem, which will be assessed in the coming days.

Southend boss Steve Tilson admitted his side had just been outclassed in the end.

He said: "We tried to hold on as long as we could, but in the end that bit of quality has got them the four goals, they were clinical."

Tilson admitted he had looked to "exploit" Chelsea's apparent weakness on set-plays.

He said: "If the delivery is good and they are zonal marking, you have got a run on them.

"It is the first time they have tried it, they did not look comfortable and so we tried to exploit that."