Peter Crouch, the Liverpool forward, has admitted he deserved to be sent off against Chelsea last night, but has criticised the role of John Obi Mikel in his dismissal.

Crouch was shown the red card for a two-footed challenge on Mikel during the second half of Liverpool’s 2-0 Carling Cup quarter-final defeat at Stamford Bridge.

The England striker verbally retorted to crowd abuse as he left the field and he admits he was frustrated. “Mikel came in with his studs up and that was in the back of my mind,” he said. “Then I thought there was another foul in there and obviously I’ve lost my head.

"There are no excuses for the tackle I made but if the referee had pulled the foul up when he should have done it wouldn’t have happened. A lot was going their way and I think frustration got the better of me.”

Crouch admits his challenge looked dangerous but says that he made only minimal contact with Mikel and he was unimpressed with the midfield player’s reaction. “What I’m thinking is if you go in on Frank Lampard or John Terry would they roll around like Obi Mikel did?” Crouch said. “I don’t think they would have done. Would someone like Carra [Jamie Carragher] have gone down like that? I think it’s safe to say that he wouldn’t.

“Foreign players have brought a lot to our game but that’s something you don’t want to see. I didn’t catch him but he’s gone down like he’s been shot.”

Liverpool were trailing to a deflected Lampard goal at the time of Crouch’s sending off in the 60th minute and the incident all but ended their hopes of getting back into the game.

Crouch concedes it was probably the defining moment of the game. “It’s frustrating because I thought we played OK as a team and obviously it was always going to be difficult from the moment I was sent off,” Crouch said.