Stoke City midfielder Glenn Whelan has hit out at his teammates after they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn Rovers this afternoon.

Joshua King scored a hat-trick for the Championship side in their 4-1 win at Ewood Park, and Whelan has said that some of the Stoke players don't deserve to be wearing the shirt after their poor performance.

He told Stoke City Player: "It's the worst performance I've ever seen a Stoke City side put out. We didn't want to fight, we didn't do the basics and we weren't prepared to work hard enough for the cause. It's okay when things are going well, we've got good players then but when we want to fight and knuckle down then maybe we haven't got enough in the dressing room.

"Today just wasn't good enough. As a team you could see there were players who didn't want to be out there. If you're not willing to work hard and put in the hard yards then you don't deserve to be wearing the jersey.

"We've sat down and had words between ourselves after the game which will stay in the dressing room. Fair play to Blackburn, they thoroughly deserved it today but I don't think they had to work too hard to get the win."

Stoke currently sit 10th in the Premier League table, with 33 points from 25 games this season.