Stoke 1-2 Tottenham: The Sunday Mirror match report

Fuming Stoke boss Tony Pulis launched a scathing attack on referee Mike Dean after seeing classy Tottenham take a cast-iron grip on the last remaining Champions League place.

Pulis was seething over Dean’s decision to send off ­Potters midfielder Dean Whitehead for a 49th minute foul on Luka Modric.

City have had five players red-carded this season, and Dean has dismissed three of them - Abdoulaye Faye, Andy Wilkinson and now ­Whitehead.

Pulis snapped: “This ref has not done brilliantly for us this season, and I expressed my concerns about him taking charge of this game.

“I wrote to referees chief Mike Riley and followed it up with a phone call saying, in effect, that we didn’t want Dean to ref us again for the rest of the season. He has given some very poor ­decisions against us and ­sending off Whitehead was another one.

“Football is a game of ­challenges and Whitehead, for me, mistimed a challenge – there was nothing more ­sinister than that.”

Pulis was backed up by Spurs boss Harry Redknapp, whose Premier League high- fliers have now won five on the spin after a first victory at Stoke for 25 years and look good for a fourth-place ­finish.

Redknapp said: “I thought the sending-off was a bit harsh. I reckon a final warning for the boy would have been enough in that situation.”

Redknapp was down to the bare bones in terms of bodies. He was without eight key players, including 17-goal top scorer Jermain Defoe who expects to be back from a pulled hamstring in 10 days.

It got worse as in-form Roman Pavlyuchenko dealt his manager another cruel injury blow when he was forced to hobble out of the ­action after 36 minutes and replaced by Eidur ­Gudjohnsen.

Spurs just about bossed an eminently forgettable first-half thanks to the thoughtful midfield play of Croatian duo Niko Kranjcar and Modric, and might have gone in at the interval ahead had Peter Crouch been a little more alert when Thomas Sorensen spilled Kranjcar’s 18th -minute half-volley.

But Dave Kitson was handed the best chance at the other end just before the break, twisting to get a header to a Rory Delap trademark throw only to see Heurelho Gomes push it away at full stretch.

The game really caught fire after the interval after ­Gudjohnsen had put his team in front with his first goal for the club.

Just 20 seconds had elapsed when Crouch set Gudjohnsen free with a lovely little lob ­forward. Veteran Iceland striker Gudjohnsen shrugged off Faye’s challenge before thumping a left-foot drive over the despairing Sorensen and into the roof of the net.

Three minutes later, the ­Potters were reduced to 10 men when Whitehead was sent off for his challenge on Modric, having been yellow-carded for a foul on the same player in the first half.

Nine minutes later, Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller had to act as peacemaker when ­Tottenham team-mates Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Vedran ­Corluka became involved in a jostling match in the centre circle.

Redknapp dismissed the clash afterwards, saying: “It was nothing – just a bit of an argument, and they probably couldn’t understand what each other was saying because one was speaking in French and the other in Croatian.”

Corluka might have had more cause to become ­aggrieved with Assou-Ekotto when the latter’s clumsy 64th-minute challenge on Kitson in the box conceded a penalty, which was put away ­comfortably by Matthew ­Etherington.

It was the former West Ham winger’s fourth goal of the ­season and, incredibly, ­elevated him to his side’s joint top scorer alongside Turkey striker Tuncay.

But gutsy Stoke stayed on level terms for only 13 ­minutes as Assou-Ekotto made amends.

The full-back drilled over a low cross, Gudjohnsen wrong-footed the home ­defence with a delicious dummy, and ­Kranjcar rifled home the winner from the edge of the box.