Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp was left furious at referee Chris Foy after the defeat his team suffered against Stoke. Several big decisions went against the London club and Redknapp felt that the referee was actively enjoying his repeated decisions in favour of Stoke City.

Stoke started brightly in front of their home crowd and Matthew Etherington scored twice in the first half against his former club, both goals coming inevitably from set pieces. However after the break, Tottenham came out and showed exactly why they had gone 11 games unbeaten before their trip to the Britannia Stadium. They had chance after chance, and it was during this dominant second half that most of the controversial decisions were made.

Spurs pulled a goal back through a penalty awarded for a foul on Modric. Replays showed that although there was probably contact, Modric went down extremely easily, and could certainly have stayed on his feet. After this however, Foy started to favour the home side. He disallowed an Adebayor goal that proved to be at least a yard onside and should have stood as the equaliser, then denied two possible handballs. One of these saw Ryan Shawcross elbow a shot off the line that was heading into the net, albeit in a way that looked as though it could have been a header. Finally, Kaboul was dismissed after two yellows, the first for dissent, and the second for a slightly clumsy but fairly innocuous tackle on Walters.

Immediately after the game, Redknapp made his views clear, despite his normal reluctance to criticise referees, who he acknowledges have a very difficult job. “I never complain about referees’ decisions – I have not done it in 30 years of management, never. But today, I’m afraid, he got some badly wrong. I felt he was quite enjoying giving us nothing,” said the Spurs manager. “When someone’s two yards onside, like Adebayor was, how’s the linesman not seen it?”