MF looks back on Stoke 2-1 Tottenham

Younes Kaboul - Tottenham Hotspur News

Well that was very disappointing. Some weak defending against the tree trunks and that oh so tedious long throw got us into a mess we in the end deserved to wriggle out of but didn’t thanks to the inept eccentricities of Chris Foy who first of all gave us a controversial penalty lifeline, then denied two a million times clearer spot kick claims. He compounded this by cutting us off at the knees in sending off Kaboul for two yellow cards, the first of which was given for moaning to Foy about one of the penalty shouts. The ref’s mistake, the player’s the one who misses a game. Great.

There’s no excuse for poor defending and we looked to be second best and on our heels constantly during the first half as Stoke attacked. It’s no surprise that the danger came from the skies, we looked unprepared though, especially Benny who was isolated and made to look vulnerable several times. We went into the break two down.

The team will feel hard done by though after a much better showing following a formation rejig at half time. Foy’s ineffectiveness brought disbelief from the Stoke fans after Luka went down despite initially apparently evading Whelan’s foul challenge. Adebayor casually tucked away the pen but despite the ire of the Britannia it was the away team who were left constantly bawling in the ref’s ear as first Kaboul was mugged by Shawcross (I think – could’ve been Huth) at a corner, the same player then cleared off the line with his arm, whilst Bale and Adebayor looked astonished as appalling decisions were given against us whilst we attacked. Add in Adebayor’s perfectly good disallowed equaliser and to say we were aggrieved is an understatement.

We were poor at the outset and gave ourselves the proverbial mountain to climb. We nearly did it though, thanks to the tactical switch and plenty of good football from Walker, Modric, Parker and Adebayor. The latter two thus suffered their first defeat in a Spurs shirt. Hopefully it’ll be another twelve games before they experience their second.

By MF

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