Stoke City goalkeeper Steve Simonsen has played down the plane drama on the club's return from Portsmouth, but acknowledged it was 'pretty eventful'.

The Potters squad were flying back from Tuesday night's Carling Cup tie at Portsmouth when the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at Gatwick Airport.

A smell of burning had been detected on the plane, with the passengers eventually completing the journey to East Midlands Airport by coach.

Simonsen insists no-one was seriously worried about the situation, but was relieved to eventually return home safe and sound.

"What happened was just incredible," said Simonsen in The Sun. "It was pretty eventful to say the least.

"The flight conditions were perfect and everything was going smoothly until about 20 minutes in there was a strange smell coming through the plane - like a burning smell.

"There was no smoke or flames, it wasn't that dramatic, but the pilot followed the emergency procedure and took us to the nearest airport.

"When you're in that sort of situation you just want to get back down safely on the ground and, thankfully, that's what we did. We weren't bothered about where we ended up.

"We tried to laugh it all off and there weren't too many worried people around.

"There were a few lads that had their parachutes ready!

"Things don't always go to plan and bad things can happen - but everybody was home and safe and we live to fight another day."