CHELTENHAM TOWN boss Keith Downing praised his side for bouncing back after their humiliating defeat at Oldham Saturday – despite watching his players dumped out of the Carling Cup by Stoke City last night.

A weakened Stoke side claimed three second-half goals from Glenn Whelan, Jon Parkin and Richard Cresswell to earn a deserving victory at Whaddon Road and book their place in the third round.

Cheltenham responded with a goal from Ashley Vincent and an injury-time effort from Alex Russell and Downing hailed his side for displaying a positive response after describing Saturday's defeat at Boundary Park as 'unacceptable'.

Downing said: "I got the sort of reaction I was looking for and I was pleased with how we performed – we competed and were organised and compact.

"The response from the players and the application they put in was first-class.

"We could have done better when we had the football but I was a lot happier with the way we went about our business without it."

"I believed we could win because we are decent at home but the manner of defeat is just as important.

"They have a strong squad and it was a difficult game but we competed against Premiership quality.

"I want to see the same application again against Leicester and we just have to work on being better with the ball."

Downing, however, suffered two injury setbacks with defender Shane Duff withdrawn with an Achilles problem and striker Paul Connor suffering a hefty whack on the ankle and will assessed later in the week ahead of the clash with Leicester City on Saturday.

On-loan Leicester striker Barry Hayles is unable to play against his parent club but is hoping to have injured trio Jennison Myrie-Williams, David Bird and Dean Sinclair back again.

The manager is also hoping to add a new face to his squad before Saturday after revealing he is 'in talks' with an unnamed club. A loan deal for Stuart Fleetwood is understood to be a possibility again and Downing is also believed to be keen on want-away Plymouth striker Jermaine Easter.