JOHN TERRY'S emotions were stirred on hearing the national anthem at Wembley but the Chelsea captain has no plans to reconsider his retirement from England duty.
The 34-year-old scored his first major final goal in a 2-0 defeat of Tottenham before lifting the Capital One Cup on Sunday.
He retired from England duty in 2012 after being stripped of the captaincy in the wake of the Anton Ferdinand affair, but is still considered by many to be England's leading defender.
"I have missed it, playing in these big stadiums and in these competitions and I'm delighted to get back to Wembley," Terry said.
"They started playing the national anthem before the game and I was going then."
Asked if he was considering an England return, Terry, who earned 78 caps, added: "No. It's the simple answer, I don't want to go into it right now.
"Being back at Wembley, the atmosphere, the stadium, it's one of the best I have played in, but it's never crossed my mind.
"I have drawn a line under it and the England squad can move on now."
Terry retired from England duty after being banned for four matches by the Football Association, despite being cleared at Westminster Magistrates Court of making a racist insult to then QPR defender Anton Ferdinand, brother of his long-time England central defensive partner Rio.
Chelsea's success showed the club in a positive light following last month's events in Paris, when five supporters were suspended by the club following a racist incident on the French capital's Metro ahead of the Champions League tie at Paris St Germain.
Terry lifted the 2005 League Cup under Jose Mourinho, a success which was the springboard for many more wins, including Chelsea's first championship in 50 years later that same season.
The Blues skipper hopes Mourinho's third League Cup - and first trophy of his second spell - can be the catalyst for another trophy haul, with a first Premier League title in five years now the focus.
"It's given us a taste of where we want to be at the end of the season, lifting more trophies," Terry added.
"This is our first one collectively. Looking back at 2004-05 it definitely had that effect on the squad.
"Hopefully it can have the same effect again to this new and upcoming squad.
"It's a great feeling. And to be the first one as a group to win is nice.
"It gives us a taste and some of the younger players in the squad as well, inspire them to go on and win more for the football club in years to come."
Chelsea's immediate attentions turn to the Premier League, where they hold a five-point lead and have a game in hand on holders Manchester City, who lost at Liverpool on Sunday.
The Blues play West Ham on Wednesday night, returning to training immediately and postponing League Cup celebrations.
"Go again for West Ham. No celebrations," he said.
"Hopefully we can put that on hold till the end of the season and many more to come. Back to focusing on the Premier League now."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article