Tottenham 0-1 Stoke match report: The Daily Mirror verdict

Harry Redknapp had the tables turned on him by one of his best mates in football.

Redknapp is famed for playing good football while Stoke boss Tony Pulis has been dismissed as a long-ball merchant since his team’s promotion to the Premier League.

But Tottenham boss Redknapp was accused of going “route one" after Pulis - his former assistant at Bournemouth - snatched all three points as Stoke showed they can play the beautiful game.

Spurs had a rare off-day and resorted to hitting long balls into the Stoke box while super-sub Glenn Whelan scored a beautifully crafted 86th minute winner.

It just about ripped apart every stereotype of both teams. Stoke are supposed to be the nasty, snarling, long-ball specialists, while Tottenham have made a flying start with their brand of free-flowing, passing football.

Stoke’s former Tottenham winger Matt Etherington said: “I think towards the end they were running out of ideas and just lumping it towards Crouchie. In the last 20 minutes, we weren’t doing that, we were passing it about.

“We do have that side to our game. I think it’s coming more and more as we develop as a team. We get stereotyped but that’s fine, they can keep doing that. As long as we get the results I don’t care.

“If you saw us last year you’ll know. The manager tells us, when there are times to bang it forward. But sometimes we get the ball going.

“We scored a great goal. Ric (Fuller) did brilliantly down the right and there were five or six passes before that. Whelo’s stuck it in the top corner.”

Whelan’s late winner capped a heroic performance from Stoke in only their third away win - their first of this campaign - since they reached the Premier League at the start of last season.

But there were few bigger heroes than Stoke’s stand-in keeper Steve Simonsen who was called in at the last moment when first-choice Thomas Sorensen felt ill during the warm-up after suffering from a stomach bug.

Simonsen, brilliantly protected by Stoke centre-half and man-of-the-match Ryan Shawcross, pulled off some superb saves and also had James Beattie to thank for a miraculous clearance off the line in the first half.

Simonsen said: “It was a difficult situation. Thomas felt he wasn’t well 20 minutes before the game. I think it’s a bug.

“There’s plenty of it going around. It gave me my chance to shine and thankfully I grabbed it with both hands and we got a fantastic result.

“That typifies what our football club is all about - a very gritty, hard-working performance and we managed to pinch a goal five minutes before the end.

“The fact they went route one in the last 20 minutes is a testament to the way we played. We kept them quiet and we’re very proud of that. Everyone has us down as a route-one team but we can play.

“People have a bit of a stereotype about Stoke being route one but we’re not. We’ve shown on numerous occasions we don’t have to play like that.

“But even if we were outrageously route one, a la Wimbledon, it wouldn’t bother us if we were getting results. That is what football is all about - getting results. People can see that Stoke are not like that. We have good footballers here.”

Maybe, just maybe, one or two cracks in Tottenham’s squad were exposed by Stoke and their terrific, gritty victory.

With Jermain Defoe suspended, Luka Modric injured, Robbie Keane having an off-day and Aaron Lennon hobbling off to leave Spurs with 10 men having used all three subs, Redknapp’s men looked ragged by the end.

With that sort of cast list missing it is little wonder. But Redknapp will be disappointed that the other players largely played into Stoke’s hands as their towering centre-half Shawcross headed and cleared everything.

Make no mistake. If Shawcross was at a more 'fashionable club' then he would be being talked of as England class. He is a terrific stopper.

But then quite how Pulis’s achievement of keeping Stoke with their limited resources in the Premier League last season went unnoticed is another mystery. He should have won Manager of the Year. And he’s going from strength to strength.

It brought Tottenham crashing back down to earth after their glorious start but Croatian midfielder Niko Kranjcar was philosophical as he insisted they would bounce back.

Kranjcar said: “It was one of those days when you don’t take your chances and it just doesn’t go in, then the other team scores with their only chance. They defended for their lives, they always do.

“We knew what was waiting for us but then again we created a lot of chances and it would have been easier if we scored that first goal. Unfortunately, we didn’t score that goal and the ball didn’t want to go over the line.

“We tried to mix up the game and it is harder to play through teams when you have 10 men. Obviously, you look for chances with crosses and long balls.”

Tottenham: Gomes 6, Corluka 6, Woodgate 6 (Dawson 15, 6), Assou-Ekoto 5, Lennon 8, Huddlestone 6 (Jenas 71, 5), Palacios 6, Kranjcar 6, Keane 5 (Pavlyuchenko 63, 5), Crouch 6.

Stoke: Simonsen 8, Wilkinson 8, Shawcross 9, Faye 8, Collins 8, Whitehead 7, Delap 6 (Whelan 58, 6), Diao 6, Etherington 6, Fuller 7 (Higginbotham, 89), Beattie 8 (Tuncay 70, 6).