Tottenham 0-1 Stoke City
Spurs defender Jonathan Woodgate: injured in front of Fabio Capello
Saturday, 24, Oct 2009 05:11
By James Christie
Spurs missed the chance to move level on points with top-of-the-table Manchester United as a late goal saw them lose 1-0 to Stoke.
Fabio Capello was at White Hart Lane and might have been disappointed to see England hopefuls such as Jonathan Woodgate and Aaron Lennon leave the field of play with injuries.
Injury-jinxed Woodgate lasted just 13 minutes before he had to retire to the bench after making a fine goal-line clearance.
The central defender's dance partner Peter Crouch would have scored just before the half-hour mark had Stoke striker James Beattie not cleared his header off the line and Niko Kranjcar came even closer to giving Spurs the lead a few passes later when his 20-yard shot hit the post.
Substitutions were to prove vital to the outcome of the game in the second half. Spurs continued to dominate but when the impressive Aaron Lennon limped off ten minutes from time the home side lost their creativity and were down to ten men having used up all their substitutes.
Stoke were quick to capitalise, substitute Glenn Whelan scoring four minutes from the end of normal time. The Potters had managed only two shots on target the entire game.
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce made an unhappy return to the St Andrews stadium as his side lost 2-1 to Birmingham, a club he used to manage.
The Blues deservedly took the lead eight minutes before half-time when defender Liam Ridgewell got on the end of a Sebastian Larsson free kick with the Black Cats guilty of ball watching. Larsson was again involved as Birmingham doubled their lead just three minutes into the second half, James McFadden applying the finishing touch to a neat move.
An own goal by Scott Dann saw Sunderland pull one back after 82 minutes but Birmingham held on to collect the three points.
Wigan are another side that Steve Bruce used to manage. They had a good result at Turf Moor where they recorded a 3-1 win to inflict Burnley's first home defeat of the season.
Scottish striker Steven Fletcher opened the scoring for Burnley in the fourth minute but Hugo Rodallega equalised for the visitors eight minutes later and got on the scoresheet again in the 51st minute.
Burnley's hopes of a comeback were killed off when Emmerson Boyce made it 3-1 after 76 minutes.
At the KC stadium, Hull drew 0-0 with bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth, a game which did not feature Hull's Jozy Altidore. The US striker was dropped from the squad for the basement clash as he arrived late for the game and Altidore risked further angering Hull boss Phil Brown by revealing the decision on Twitter with the tweet: "Apologize to the all of you. I showed up late. Made a big mistake, I'm very,very sorry."
There was also no place in the Hull squad record signing Jimmy Bullard, who was hoping to make his home debut in a yellow shirt after an eight-month injury lay-off.