THERE’S no such thing as a home banker at the quarter-final stage of the Carling Cup, but Stoke versus Derby tonight comes pretty close.

The only question mark for me is the strength of the team Tony Pulis chooses to field.

Far be it from me to tell him to pick his strongest 11 because Tony knows his players better than anyone. But that said, I personally wouldn’t listen too much to any player telling me he’s a bit tired after playing last Saturday and having the prospect of playing next Saturday.

Any player should be happy to play every day of the week if Wembley is the carrot dangling on the end of the line.

Stoke are also going great guns at home at the moment after winning five and drawing one of their last six at the Britannia Stadium, a momentum they will want to keep going for both their league and cup prospects.

So it’s quite a formidable task lying ahead for a Derby team appearing to be going backwards again right now.

After coming down from their Premier League they should really be up there with your Wolves, Birminghams and Readings, even though they sank without trace last season, but they’re still treading water with the also rans in the Championship.

You could argue the pressure is off them tonight because little is expected, but you could have said the same last season when they were already down and yet they carried on getting beat every week.

There’s been a massive turnover in personnel at Pride Park and quite a few injuries in the camp at the moment – and boy is it taking its toll. I have to say I feel sorry for the supporters because, for reasons best known to themselves, they’ve stuck loyally by the club in terrific numbers.

I kept looking at their attendances during their horrific run last season, and again this season, and I have to say it’s amazing how the crowd has stood up in the circumstances.

It should be much closer in the Burnley v Arsenal game at Turf Moor tonight, but again I fancy the Premier Leaguers IF they field anything like their strongest team. If Arsene Wenger goes into deepest Lancashire with a team full of kids then I really would fancy Burnley.

But surely he’s going to chuck a few more seasoned campaigners into the mix if he is serious about wanting to win the Carling Cup.

I was at The Emirates for their Champions’ League clash with Dynamo Kiev last week and they were frankly a shambles. But I said afterwards that, football being football, they will probably go and get a result at Chelsea on the Sunday.

Sure enough, they went and won 2-1 to help blow the title race wide open.

Tomorrow sees Manchester United entertain Blackburn and Tottenham go to Watford in the two remaining Carling Cup quarter-finals.

Sorry to be a killjoy, but again I don’t see much prospect of any upsets here.

I feel sure Fergie will throw more experience into his line-up at Old Trafford because even though Blackburn are on a terrible run of form, they have enough men in their team to spring the kind of surprise Coventry pulled off at United last season.

So it should be a case of once bitten twice shy for Fergie, especially so close to Wembley.

Spurs suffered a hiccup in losing at home to Everton on Sunday, but I feel sure it was only a hiccup.

Their resurrection is well underway under Harry Redknapp and I don’t see them stepping on too many banana skins at Watford.

Watford are still finding their feet under a new and untried manager in Brendan Rodgers, so it would be some effort for them to get through Tottenham to join United, Arsenal AND Stoke City in the quarter-finals.

CHRISTIANO Ronaldo can certainly blame his hands for getting him that red card in the Manchester derby at the weekend.

Not so much when he inexplicably handled to earn a second yellow, but when he used them to sarcastically applaud referee Howard Webb after getting his first booking.

There was no excuse for such behaviour and there’s no doubt his card was marked. I said at the time that I feared for him if he got into any kind of bother later in the afternoon. You could see his hand clap had needled the referee by the look of disgust he gave the United winger.

Why he handled the ball when he did goodness only knows. Whether or not he genuinely heard a whistle, you surely try to head for goal – then ask questions later.

Luckily, his dismissal didn’t cost United in the end because City struggled to make their one-man advantage count. But he might not have been quite so lucky after the match when he bumped into Sir Alex because you can bet his last instruction to Ronaldo before the game would have been along the lines: “Whatever you do, stay on the pitch and don’t get involved in any kind of nonsense.”