Zokora's dive fools referee

Tottenham - 2 Portsmouth - 1: Didier Zokora keeled over and tipped Portsmouth towards defeat as he gained the 35th-minute penalty that established Tottenham's 2-0 lead here yesterday.

Spurs' former icon Glenn Hoddle, to whom the victory should have been pleasurable, called him "a despicable cheat". The incident otherwise led to reflection more than recrimination. The visitors' manager Harry Redknapp must have been mollified by an apology from the referee Chris Foy.

Zokora had manoeuvred slickly but Pedro Mendes pulled out of the tackle as he realised the risk, yet the Ivory Coast midfielder still went down. Redknapp studied the replay on a monitor and argued that the fourth official should have the benefit of the same technology. "I saw it wasn't a penalty before he (Jermain Defoe) had even taken it," he said. "It would take seconds to look at that and he's wired up so he can say to the referee: 'He's dived. It's not a penalty.' It's almost too easy. Why don't we do it?"

Redknapp himself initially believed a foul had been committed and sympathised with Foy: "He feels embarrassed. He's a good referee. I've been to see him and he said, 'Harry, I've made a big mistake.' He would have loved a bit of help. Now the whole country is saying: 'What a mess he's made of that'."

The Spurs manager was left to champion Zokora. "He told me he was off balance and I thought he was," said Martin Jol. "You could see he was anticipating Mendes coming in. I don't think it was a blatant dive."

That is a minority view, but relief over the penalty, which Defoe converted, was universal among Spurs fans. Their club had not won in the Premiership since August 22nd.

Thursday's Uefa Cup action against Slavia Prague was bound to take its toll and the 2-0 lead was valuable to a side who gradually ran out of energy. Had the advantage stayed at 1-0 the visitors might have capitalised.

For all that, elements of the match augured well for Tottenham and there is an intense brightness to any opening that includes a goal after 39 seconds. Defoe was sharp in applying pressure and clipping the cross for Dimitar Berbatov's header. The impressive David James saved. Glen Johnson then attempted to shield the ball as Berbatov barged into his back and the goalkeeper merely knocked possession to Danny Murphy, who converted cutely with the inside of his right heel.

The happiness was to wane. Gary O'Neil had no trouble evading Benoit Assou-Ekotto after 40 minutes and a good cross was headed home by the poorly marked Kanu.

Tottenham were never to be the same again after that. The midfield had to be stiffened for the second half, with Tom Huddlestone coming on in the centre and Jermaine Jenas going to the right, as Hossam Ghaly dropped to full back in the wake of Pascal Chimbonda's substitution.

The precautions were barely sufficient. The influential Michael Dawson had to be taken off after a clash of heads and as he reeled so did his club. In stoppage-time it took good reactions from Paul Robinson to claw the ball away following a point-blank header from Lomana LuaLua and the final whistle was greeted with wild enthusiasm.

Guardian Service