England captain John Terry has rejected claims that their surprise loss at Ukraine was due to flare attacks in Dnipro.

Serhiy Nazarenko's 29th minute goal for Ukraine coupled with Robert Green's sending off after less than 15 minutes dealt England their first loss of their World Cup qualifying campaign.

Although the English have already qualified for the World Cup finals next year, they still had a 100% qualifying record to defend.

Controversy reigned when flares were thrown onto the pitch at the start of the game before Green's expulsion. David James, Green's replacement, had to also brave showers of flares thrown into the England penalty area.

According to Sky News, the Football Association has confirmed they will be making an official complaint to FIFA regarding the two incidents.

But Terry has insisted that the flares were not reasons for England's defeat.

"We did not feel at all in danger because of the flares," the England captain said.

"We were disappointed in the first half and we can't blame the flares on this and the other.

"There have been certain games in this group where we have had to tackle situations and we have got through them.

"We can't look at the flares as an excuse. In the opening half, we were not at our best."

Terry was more concerned with the bizarre situation in which referee Damir Skomina appeared to send off Rio Ferdinand - and then changed his mind and gave Green a red card for bringing down Artem Milevskyi.

The Chelsea captain said: "I saw something different to the referee. He wanted to send Rio off which is bizarre and he was closer than me as well.

"I think the fourth official intervened but after the game, the referee said he was going to send Robert Green off and not Rio which is even more bizarre.

"Hold your hands up if you have made a mistake."

Terry feels England can take positives from the game despite the defeat.

He added: "To go down to ten men after so little time made it very difficult but in the second half we gave it a right go and there were some positives to come out of the second 45 minutes."