HT Stoke 0-0 Tottenham - Gomes the hero as home side shade gritty first half
Published 15:57 20/03/10 By MirrorFootball
Heurelho Gomes denied Dave Kitson with a fine diving save as Stoke and Tottenham fought out a gritty first-half scoreless stalemate at the Britannia Stadium.
The home side shaded the chances with Abdoulaye Faye and Danny Higginbotham both missing with headers and Rory Delap posing his usual threat from long throws.
Redknapp's men spluttered into action and scarcely threatened Thomas Sorensen in the Stoke goal although Peter Crouch almost chased down a shot which the goalkeeper spilled from Niko Kranjcar.
Peter Crouch was named in the starting line-up as a replacement for hamstring injury victim Jermain Defoe. Boss Harry Redknapp made one other change, replacing Wilson Palacios with Younes Kaboul.
Stoke boss Tony Pulis also made two changes, both to his forward line, with Dave Kitson and Ricardo Fuller replacing Mamady Sidibe and Tuncay Sanli - both of whom dropped to the bench.
A low-key opening period was livened up by Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes, who delayed an eighth-minute clearance long enough for Kitson to close within yards.
With the home side just shading it, Dean Whitehead came close to threading a through-ball to put Fuller in the clear but Vedran Corluka made a vital interception.
Redknapp's men, starting the day one point clear in fourth, were struggling to build any kind of impetus and it was Stoke who continued to threaten chiefly via Delap down the right.
Spurs finally fashioned a chance in the 18th minute when Niko Kranjcar's long-range effort was spilled by Thomas Sorensen and Crouch almost got in to poke home the loose ball.
Tempers frayed when Gareth Bale was on the end of his second rough challenge, this time from Sidibe, which earned the Stoke man a booking and Spurs assistant Joe Jordan a ticking-off for his reaction.
Stoke came close in the 22nd minute when Higginbotham's ball into the box was flicked on by Kitson into the path of Abdoulaye Faye, whose own header flashed wide of target.
Higginbotham then took his turn to head just over from another Whelan set-piece, while at the other end Roman Pavlyuchenko sent a weak shot into the arms of Sorensen.
Whitehead was the second man in referee Mike Dean's book for a crashing challenge on Luka Modric before Stoke called Gomes into action for the first time.
With the visitors struggling to clear after a sustained spell of pressure, Kitson flicked a back-header which almost caught out the Spurs goalkeeper and forced him to dive to his left to save.
Redknapp replaced Pavlyuchenko with Eidur Gudjohnsen just past the half-hour mark and moments later Gomes was in action again, almost parrying a cross from Kitson straight to the feet of the unmarked Whitehead.
Faye's decisive challenge ended Bale's run into the box in the last minute of the half, while at the other end Fuller lifted a shot straight at Gomes who had made a mess of a clearance.
