Tottenham 3 Stoke 2:PETER CROUCH'S head pounded. His vision was blurred and, emotionally, he was spent. This time, though, the Tottenham Hotspur striker could savour the scars of the battle.
Hard on the heels of his foolish red card at Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg last Tuesday the Spurs striker had scored twice at one end and put his body on the line at the other to ensure his team reinvigorated their push for a fourth-placed Premier League finish.
No one in a Spurs shirt has greater motivation to ensure the club re-enter the Champions League. Crouch blames himself for the 4-0 scoreline at the Bernabeu, which has virtually guaranteed Tottenham’s elimination, yet, in front of a supportive home crowd, this was a first step towards redemption.“Last season, no one believed we could get there and it’s probably the same this season,” he said. “We’ve dropped a few points and we maybe feel like the underdogs. But we can definitely do it, without doubt.”
Crouch is still beating himself up for the two yellow cards he received in the first 15 minutes at the Bernabeu. “I took it really hard . . . I felt like I’d cost the team. I said to the players and the manager I was sorry and the Stoke game was my chance to say sorry to all the fans that had travelled to Madrid as well.”
Crouch was so desperate to make amends he was ready to beg Harry Redknapp to start him. The manager had suggested the day before Stoke City’s visit to White Hart Lane that Crouch would not play but he knew he was back in good spirits when he saw him organising the players’ Grand National sweepstake. Alan Hutton won and tickets were £50 (€57) per horse.
Stoke could not be accused of saving themselves for the FA Cup semi-final against Bolton Wanderers on Sunday. Despite being second best in the first half, they kept themselves in the contest with wonderful individual goals from the former Tottenham player Matthew Etherington and Kenwyne Jones, and they had the better of the chances in the second half. In the dying moments Spurs were indebted to Crouch for a pair of brave defensive headers; Robert Huth cleaned him out after the first one. Crouch said he felt “a bit concussed” an hour after full-time.
The final whistle was the prompt for the Tottenham full-back Vedran Corluka to lose his marbles. He marched over towards a home fan who had been abusing him, angrily jabbing his finger, and he had to be bundled away by stewards and members of Redknapp’s staff. The Stoke substitute Ricardo Fuller had earlier clashed with another Tottenham supporter and there appeared to be bad blood between Jones and Tom Huddlestone.
Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, said he wanted to reach 40 points as quickly as possible but his team looked anything but relegation material.
Guardian Service
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)