All four of the adjectives above were useful in describing parts of what happened at the Britannia Stadium Sunday, a match in which Spurs continued to founder at inopportune times.
After an opening period of 15 minutes where the two teams sorted themselves out, Spurs found themselves in hot water when Gareth Bale drew a straight red card for cutting down Tom Soares in the penalty area, and Danny Higginbotham knocked in the penalty shot to give the home side a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. Spur goalie Gomes did correctly guess the position of the shot, but failed to slow down the ball as it entered to his left by the post. Of course, the red card on Bale meant an immediate ejection, so Spurs were left to play 10 men for the rest of the match.
Things for Spurs turned around soon after, typified by their good fortune by being a tad bit offside, but not being penalized, as Darren Bent leveled the score just a few minutes later. For the rest of the half, Spurs were indeed the better team on the pitch, moving the ball around nicely and getting a couple of decent shots on goal, all of them being from a distance however, giving their keeper Thomas Sorensen good looks at the shots.
Rory Delap knocked in a beautiful (and well-defended) cross from the right to give Stoke the lead again, and it was at this point that the home side played as if they knew had the man advantage on the pitch. Spurs efforts to score in the second half were similar to the ones in the first half, with nothing particularly close near the goal.
Micheal Dawson made a bookend for Spurs in the red card department by receiving one for a studs-up tackle on the shin of Mamady Sidibe in extra time, and with Spurs having trouble scoring goals with 11 men most of the season, the task of getting one in the final 4 minutes or so was daunting indeed.
As for the adjectives, screaming could have been used for the grimace on Gomes near the end of the first half after a collision on a Stoke corner, but I couldn't quite tell what might have happened to produce such a reaction; after a visit from the physio, he remained in the game and finished strong.
Awful is the word to describe what happened to Spurs defender Vedran Corluka midway through the second half in a collison with Gomes, taking a knee to the head and knocking the defender to the ground, where he remained motionless for several minutes. Corluka was given an oxygen mask and carted off the field, but apparently not immediately taken to the hospital, as the commentator noted that his condition was not of a very serious nature.
Bloody is the fate of Sorenson, the Stoke goalie, after an accidental collision with Alan Hutton left him with his fluid streaming down his face, the injury time for both players were the reasons that there were 11 minutes of extra time, a figure not often seen.
The mess Spurs now find themselves in is dead bottom of the table, with just two points from their first eight games, with fixtures against Liverpool and Manchester United coming up in the very near future. How much further Spurs can sink remains to be seen, but for now, the view isn't a very good one.
BBC REPORT , GUARDIAN REPORT
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