Harry says ref got it ‘badly wrong’

TOTTENHAM manager Harry Redknapp offered a scathing assessment of referee Chris Foy’s display after watching his team lose ground in the Premier League title race.

Stoke’s 2-1 success, secured thanks to a Matthew Etherington brace, ended a sequence of 10 wins and a draw from their previous 11 top flight matches for Redknapp’s team. However, the Spurs manager felt that unbeaten sequence could have been continued but for Foy.

Although the Merseyside official handed them a penalty, converted by Emmanuel Adebayor, for a foul on Luka Modric, he twice missed handballs on the line by Ryan Shawcross and Dean Whitehead, as well as ruling out a legitimate Adebayor goal despite the on-loan striker being clearly played onside by Marc Wilson.

A furious Redknapp said: “Unfortunately, a couple of decisions he got completely and utterly wrong.

“Yes I told him [the referee] so. I never go and talk to referees after a game, I accept defeat, I never complain about referees’ decisions, I have not done it in 30 years of management, never, but, I’m afraid, he got some badly wrong.

“The referee hasn’t made mistakes because he meant to — he’s an honest guy, but he had a bad day.

“So did the linesman (Robert Pollock) who missed Adebayor being two yards onside. He’ll look at it on TV when his wife’s making him a bacon sandwich and he’ll think ‘what have I done there?”

Spurs will need to quickly dust themselves down for Thursday’s Europa League meeting with Shamrock Rovers in Dublin.

In addition to three points, they will need Rubin Kazan to lose and a six-goal swing in goal difference if they are to pinch a spot in the knockout phase.

“We’ve had a bit of luck in some of the games we’ve won. Fulham battered us and we hung on for grim life. In the first half at West Brom we didn’t play great, but in the second half we murdered them a bit like here.”

Stoke manager Tony Pulis would not be drawn on the incidents. “If they were penalties, they were penalties, you have to decide that,” he said.

But the Welshman was thrilled to take three points from a team he insists very much remain title contenders.

Pulis added: “With that pace and power, Harry is very close to having a team that could win the championship.

“What they’ve got is formidable to play against. They have so much quality. They are the form team in the Premier League.

“We knew we has to come out of the blocks quickly, we didn’t want them to settle.”