Shawcross (second yellow - foul on Rose) 52 

20  Geoff CAMERON
17  Ryan SHAWCROSS (c)              
12  Marc WILSON
  5  Marc MUNIESA

32  Stephen IRELAND (  3  Eric PIETERS 55)
15  Steven NZONZI
  6  Glenn WHELAN
10  Marc ARNAUTOVIC     

  9  Peter ODEMWINGIE
25  Peter CROUCH (24  Ousamma ASSAIDI 61)

Unused subs: 
29  Thomas SORENSEN
28  Andy WILKINSON
16  Charlie ADAM
  8  Wilson PALACIOS
19  Jonathan WALTERS

16  Kyle NAUGHTON     
20  Michael DAWSON (c)
  4  Younes KABOUL
  3  Danny ROSE        (35  Zeki FRYERS 69)

  7  Aaron LENNON  (17  Andros TOWNSEND 78)
  8  PAULINHO
23  Christian ERIKSEN
21  Nacer CHADLI (22  Gyfli SIGURDSSON 73)

10  Emmanuel ADEBAYOR
37  Harry KANE

Unused subs: 
24  Brad FRIEDEL
  8  SANDRO
42  Nabil BENTALEB
  9  Roberto SOLDADO

Tottenham sent the Potters support home grumbling about everything and anything, but what it all came down to was a single goal victory for Tottenham over a Stoke City side that only played when the team were down to ten men.  However, their failure to score goals cost Stoke here, as it has done away from home on a regular basis.

Spurs brought back Michael Dawson in the heart of the defence as a counter to the threat in the air from former Spurs striker Peter Crouch.  Other than that, the Tottenham team was the same as it has been in recent weeks, while Stoke went with their settled line-up, not risking bringing back Eric Pieters into the starting XI.

From their kick off, Spurs almost had a quick start rather than conceding a goal in the first minute.  Nacer Chadli ran at the defence, who backed off and his shot was not too far away from the top corner.  After that the game had a cagey start, with the most notable thing being Shawcross going down under challenges by Lennon and then Adebayor, where he needed lengthy treatment, as he claimed he had got an elbow in the face.

Aaron Lennon came close to scoring in the 10th minute, when he teased Steven Ireland on our right wing, before switching to his left foot and putting a shot in that Begovic had to fumble around his near post as the ball headed towards the area just below the crossbar and post.

Lloris had to come for a high ball hanging in the breeze when it was headed back towards goal from a cross on the other side of the pitch.  He got under it a bit and had to go over Crouch, but managed to recover the ball on the ground.  There was a bit of passing on the ground, but the tackles still flew in with full force and not always winning the ball.  It was like watching Stoke of old, with set pieces being lumped into the box, but Stoke were also conceding free-kicks at regular intervals, with Eriksen's whipped in dead ball delivery nearly found a head to glance it past the keeper, but it thumped into Begovic's chest instead.

Dawson had been busy, keeping Crouch at bay and also throwing a block to thwart a Whelan shot following Spurs losing the ball far too easily out on their left wing.

Tottenham's build-up wasn't too bad, but the final ball failed to penetrate the back four, with some passes not very good, as they never looked like reaching their target.  When Stoke broke, they did look dangerous, with Ireland cutting inside to curl a right foot shot a foot or two side of Lloris' far post, then Kane was weaving into the box at the other end, but was unable to find a low shot that would beat the goalie.  What did beat Begovic was a neat little goal created by Adebayor.  He touched the ball on one side of Whelan in the area on the right side, then had the nous to stand up a cross to the far post where Danny Rose flew in to power a header past the keeper to hand Spurs the lead with 32 minutes gone.

Adebayor got involved with Charlie Adam, who wasn't even on the pitch, but stuck as leg out as the Spurs man ran after a ball that went off the side of the pitch.  Adam was warming up, but took the opportunity to wind Emmanuel up.  After that, the rain started pouring down and with a corner cleared and Dawson kicking out a curling low cross from Whelan, there wasn't too much to get excited about, unless you were a Stoke supporter, who, knowing little about football, claimed a handball against Kane in the Tottenham box, when it clearly hit him in the stomach.  Spurs did have a decent attack, with Kane cutting back on a defender and having his shot blocked, with Adebayor receiving the ball in the second phase of play to lay it into the path of Lennon, just inside the box, but the winger's touch was awful and the ball was cleared.

Both sides traded yellow cards, with Naughton pulling Muniesa down when he threatened to go past him, after Lennon had lost the ball, then, unsurprisingly, Shawcross joined him, when he made sure Eriksen didn't nutmeg him by bundling him over without any attempt to go for the ball.

There were no changes at the break, so  the game should have continued in the way it had been going, but Arnautovic held off Naughton on the left hand corner of the box and hit a fierce shot at goal, but it ended up a good couple of yards wide.  Spurs then showed what they could do going forward and Kane played a reverse ball to Eriksen, who ran across the face of the box and hit a shot that Nzonzi blocked.

Six minutes into the half, a ball hung up in the air and Danny Rose won the ball, knocking the ball away, but Shawcross, as he does all too often, took his challenge through and dragged his studs down Rose's shin, luckily only earning a second yellow card, which added up to a red.

I'm not sure whether Mark Hughes' persistent shouts of "Shite" were aimed at the referee or his side.   And while the Stoke crowd might be the loudest, they are the most ignorant.  Cries of "handball" were laughable in their incredulity.  They shouted that almost as much as their manager was criticising the match official.  Shawcross has played over 200 Premier League game sand should know better.  I don't know how many games the Stoke supporters have ever seen, but their booing of Danny Rose was a joke.

With the extra man, Spurs had to make it count and Kane's low ball across the box in the 55th minute found Lennon, who saw his effort blocked by a lunging dive.  It was almost ten minutes before Stoke made any indent into the Spurs defence, when a cross from the left found Odemwingie coming in, but his header flew over.  Unfortunately, Rose let the barracking get to him and when Marriner failed to punish Cameron for a late chop at his ankles, he followed the Canadian and pushed him in the chest.  He got a yellow and might have been lucky to avoid getting a red, although he didn't raise his hands to the Stoke man's face.

Arnautovic had a chance when Stoke broke through the middle of the Tottenham defence, but Kaboul put him off with a good tackle, then a cross from the right just failed to be close enough to allow  Nzonzi to get full contact with his header.  Stretching, he put it wide.  Lloris had to dive low to keep a shot from Nzonzi out with his legs ... his first save of the game.

Rose was taken out of the firing line, as it looked like Stoke were planning to wind him up into a sending off, with Zeki Fryers coming on and when a cross from the right failed to find Adebayor, with Wilson clearing, Fryers bent in a cross that Kane met, but without conviction and he sent it over the bar.  The game descended into a mess, with players dwelling on the ball and getting caught in possession and passes not finding their man.  The slippery surface only contributed to the lack of quality.  Tottenham seemed to lack the urgency to go on and kill the game off.  Happy to keep hold of the ball, they failed to make a telling pass around the edge of the area.

When Tottenham did get a shooting opportunity, Eriksen shot over from about 23 yards out after Whelan had pulled down Sigurdsson, on as a sub for Chadli.  Kane got away from Muniesa, but his low ball in didn't look for a dark blue shirt.  Another sub, Andros Townsend was almost immediately injured, when Pieters cleared him out with his trailing leg and injured the winger's ankle.  I fully expected the home crowd to be howling for a foul, as they had done for most of the game, but then they wouldn't know one when they see one.  They thought they saw one when Dawson slid the ball away from Assaidi, but if they shout you know it is the opposite of what they want.

Whelan put a good ball across the face of goal, but Arnautovic had two chances; one which he blazed over and then a second when he got away from Dawson and just inside the box, he could only hit it low straight where Lloris was.  Nzonzi had a shot with three minutes left, but again, it was aimed straight at the French keeper.  Then Cameron crashed a shot way over the bar, when the blood went to his head.  Stoke were making more of a game of it with ten than with eleven.  What does that say about Shawcross ??  But in truth, Townsend was nothing more than a passenger.

There was one bright moment, when Younes Kaboul went on an eighty yard run up the line to the dead ball line.  However, when he got there, he couldn't quite pick out a Spurs man in the goalmouth.  They decided to run down the clock when they got a centrally placed free-kick a couple of yards outside the box, after Arnautovic scissored Kane's legs and got a yellow card for his trouble.  Begovic was required to save with his foot, as Paulinho burst through into the area onto Sigurdsson's pass and tried to slip a low shot past him deep into added time. 

Hilariously, before the final whistle was greeted with boos by the Stokies, they were singing "1-0 to the referee".  It was a much louder song than any that were urging their team on.  They got what they deserved really and the sense of disgruntlement they showed was borne of having had a decent run at home and not being able to accept that their captain had given the referee no option other than to send him off.

Mark Hughes is obviously trying to turn the culture of the Stoke team around, but he needs to try harder and they could be a good team if they tried to play a bit more football.  They don't need to go out to be far more physical than the opposition, as that way lies madness.  Until he can get the footballing best out of his players, the club will always be striving to be a top half team.  Lacking a top striker and players who can make the right decisions at the right times, they might have to wait a while for that to happen.

Pete Evans