Stoke's Mark O'Connor believes a cloud has been left hanging over the club following Arsene Wenger's scathing comments.

Wenger accused Stoke players of trying to deliberately injure members of his team during the Gunners' 2-1 defeat at the Britannia Stadium earlier this month.

Stoke, who face Rotherham at home in the Carling Cup fourth round on Tuesday, play Manchester United in the Premier League on Saturday and Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson was one of several managers who had supportive words for Stoke following Wenger's remarks.

"I wasn't surprised by what some managers have said in our support after what Arsene Wenger said, because they were only telling the truth," O'Connor said.

"I would have been disappointed if they had not supported us. It would have been easy for people to have jumped on the bandwagon, but they didn't.

"Mind you, if we go to Old Trafford and win on Saturday it will be interesting to see what Sir Alex says then!

"Whatever Arsene Wenger said, it only took a few seconds to score those goals after Rory Delap's throws, so Arsenal had the rest of the 90 minutes to do something about it.

"They were not able to. He (Wenger) was just covering up for their lack of ability on the day, even though they are a fantastic team.

"He was the only person here that day who made those comments, nobody else saw the game like that.

"It has gone now, although I felt it was disrespectful to our players, who gave a lot in that game.

"It is a shame, because it has left something of an atmosphere over us. I noticed the first thing that Steve Bruce was asked after the game at Wigan on Saturday was 'Are Stoke a dirty team?'

"People have kept it going and asked the question. People are being asked to give an answer about a game that they did not see. That is not right. It is laughable some of the things that have gone on since then."

Now Stoke aim to put the uproar behind them and reach the last eight of the Carling Cup at League Two side Rotherham's expense.

O'Connor added: "The spirits are really high, we would much prefer to be going to Manchester United on Saturday in a good run of form rather than being down in the dumps.

"Now we need to make sure we are in the Carling Cup quarter-finals by then and to make sure we do not take Rotherham lightly in any way.

"Our players have started to believe they can compete in the Premier League, but we have this cup tie first and we believe we have a strong squad and will be using a few other players for this one.

"But we know a win puts us in the quarter-finals so it is a huge game. It is a chance for us to win something. A win will breed confidence and take us into the United game on top form."

Stoke, who have not reached the last eight of the competition for 30 years after winning it in 1972, will be leaving out several senior stars.

Striker Mamady Sidibe, who injured an ankle in the 0-0 draw at Wigan on Saturday, is out along with Liam Lawrence following an ankle operation. Tom Soares and Michael Tonge are cup-tied.