ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Stoke City 2 Tottenham 1:IT WAS more like a battlefield than a football pitch at times as Stoke City subjected Juande Ramos and his players to as uncomfortable an afternoon as it is possible to imagine at this level.

Having arrived in search of a remedy for their malaise, Tottenham departed battered and bruised after a compelling encounter which saw the visitors finish with nine men, concede two penalties, suffer a potentially serious injury and, most crucially of all, succumb to another defeat that leaves them anchored to the foot of the table.

There was polite applause for Ramos from the travelling fans who had remained behind at the final whistle, but so desperate is Tottenham's predicament that it will surely be only a matter of time before sections of the support turn.

Encouragement could be taken from the manner in which Spurs responded to the setback of Gareth Bale's dismissal and the spot-kick Danny Higginbotham eventually converted, but from the interval onwards Stoke were in total control and deserved their second league win of the season.

The margin of victory might even have been more convincing but, after Jonathan Woodgate upended the lively Tom Soares in injury-time, Ricardo Fuller crashed a penalty against both uprights before Rory Delap smashed the rebound against the crossbar.

By then, however, there had long been a suspicion that the game was up for Spurs, a belief that was reinforced in the ninth minute of the 11 that were added on when the substitute Michael Dawson recklessly lunged at Mamady Sidibe and received a straight red card.

Dawson was the second Spurs central defender to leave the field, with Vedran Corluka having earlier departed on a stretcher after a collision involving his goalkeeper, Heurelho Gomes, and Fuller. Play was held up for around six minutes before the Croatian was placed in a neck brace, given an oxygen mask and taken to hospital in an ambulance. It was an unfortunate incident that was in keeping with a full-blooded contest as Tony Pulis encouraged his players to bombard the Spurs area.

There is no more potent weapon than Delap's long throw-in but, while the tactic threatened to bring reward for Stoke, it was a tap-in at the far post that provided the midfielder with his most vital contribution.

Sidibe was the architect, the striker escaping on the right flank, after Stoke had for once resisted the temptation to go route one, before swinging a cross into the six-yard box that Delap, unmarked at the far post after Alan Hutton had been sucked towards the ball, side-footed into the net.

There were still 37 minutes of normal time remaining but the zest, determination and courage that accompanied Tottenham's performance in the final half-hour of the first half had now disappeared.

Luka Modric blazed over from the edge of the penalty area after Ibrahima Sonko lost his footing at the most inopportune time and Darren Bent, who had earlier equalised after bundling home despite straying into an offside position, enjoyed a brief sight of goal in the 90th minute. But these were rare excursions into the Stoke half.

In truth the portents had not been promising for Tottenham from as early as the 16th minute when Thomas Sorensen, who had to be withdrawn in the second half after Hutton's late challenge left him requiring stitches above the eye, punted upfield and Bale failed to control Dave Kitson's flick-on. The ball pinballed between the Welshman's legs before Soares stole a yard on the full-back and was brought down as he tore into the penalty area. Lee Mason, the referee, had little option but to show a red card.

Higginbotham had the task of inflicting further punishment, something he managed to do but not before the blustery conditions required him to respot the ball four times. Mindful of those circumstances, the former Sunderland defender merited praise for his nerveless execution.

Tottenham, however, were galvanised for a period, with Bent's leveller prefacing the visitors' best spell of the game as Stoke, somewhat embarrassingly given their numerical advantage, forlornly chased the ball.

Yet half-time proved to be more than just an interruption to proceedings as Spurs lost their way and Stoke found their rhythm. Indeed, when Delap struck Stoke's second, the game had turned on its head and thereafter the question seemed to be not whether Spurs could salvage an equaliser but how long it would be before Stoke added a third. Fuller came the closest, the Jamaican hitting the woodwork twice with his penalty.

Not that the Stoke fans were left disappointed. "You're getting sacked in the morning," they taunted as Ramos faced up to a sixth defeat in eight league matches that ensures he has left an indelible mark on Tottenham's history, with the sequence representing the club's worst start to a league season. With matches against Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City to come, following Sunday's game against Bolton, there is a sense that things could become worse before they get better.

Guardian Service