Bad refereeing costs Spurs the tie

Stoke City beat a valiant Spurs team short of a man as more inconsistent refereeing ensured the North Londoners’ dreams of a club record 12-match unbeaten league record remained just that.

A Matthew Etherington brace put the home side ahead in the first half which saw a resurgent Stoke outperforming their fancied opponents. The first goal came in the 13^th minute as a deflected Ryan Shotton cross was flicked onto the path of Peter Crouch by Jonathan Walters. The former Liverpool man, under pressure from William Gallas, slipped in a shot to the near post, through the legs of Spurs stopper Brad Friedel, where an onrushing Etherington gladly obliged with a fierce shot into the net.

Matthew Etherington fires in Stoke's first goal

The second goal came at the stroke of half-time under similar circumstances. Ryan Shotton, standing in for Rory Delap, threw in a threatening long-ball into the Spurs penalty area. Walters headed it onto Etherington who hit in a scuffed shot for his second goal.

Harry Redknapp reined in the changes at the start of second-half as he replaced Benoit Assou-Ekkoto and Aaron Lennon with Sebastian Bassong and Jermaine Defoe, indicating desperation from his side to walk away with at least a point. The changes worked to good effect as Spurs compounded the pressure which led to a penalty awarded in their favour in the 62^nd minute. Glen Whelan tripped Luka Modric and Chris Foy immediately pointed to the spot where Emmanuel Adebayor stepped up to slot home his 8^th of the season.

Etherington scores the match winner – Stoke's second!

But the best part of the game, unfortunately the worst as well, was yet to come. Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross, defending a Spurs corner, clearly made a mess of marking Younès Kaboul as he pulled him down in the area. Shockingly enough, Chris Foy missed the challenge despite being closer to the incident. Adding insult to injury, Kaboul was shown a yellow card for his protests.

More misery was to come for Spurs as Shawcross elbowed away a Kaboul shot from the line of his goal resulting out of a Spurs counter attack that saw a barrage of players crowd the Stoke penalty area. The unfortunate incident, however, was not the highlight as Emmanuel Adebayor, who converted the rebound of Shawcross, was ruled offside despite the fact that he was played onside by a good three yards by the retreating Marc Wilson.

Referee Chris Foy foiled Harry's Christmas party!

Spurs continued to push ahead despite being denied the equaliser by the linesman’s error. But luck continued to run out as Kaboul received his marching orders for a modest challenge on Shotton. Foy produced the second yellow and Spurs were reduced to ten men. Shawcross, on the other hand rode his luck very well even producing a fine save off Friedel as well as hitting the crossbar with his headers.

Spurs hung on for the last few minutes but Foy’s fumbles ensured that Scott Parker, leading the side, tasted his first defeat at the club.

What was a cracker of a match was heavily overshadowed by inconsistent refereeing that not only paints a bad picture of Chris Foy, but a number of such incidents over the past few weeks presents the Premier League in bad light amongst its rivals. This has also been the cause for managers, for instance, Kenny Dalglish and Andre Villas-Boas for venting out their frustrations.

Pretty sure, this is something David Gill and the FA should look into……Ah! Never mind, last time we checked, they were busy charging Luis Suarez left, right and centre besides helping Wayne Rooney reduce his ban!