When Has This Happened for Spurs?

When have Spurs ever benefited from refereeing decisions in a game to such an extent as happened against Stoke last weekend?  In almost fifty years of supporting the club I can't think of any examples.

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Now that the win over Sunderland has restored our equilibrium, I've been thinking about that loss at the Brittania Stadium and if there has ever been a similar example where Tottenham have been the benefactors of such a display of refereeing where so many mistakes went in our favour and handed us victory on a plate.

Stoke had a number of decisions which went in their favour, courtesy of referee Chris Foy and his assistants:

• Peter Crouch clearly handled the ball in the lead up to the first goal
• Younes Kaboul was dragged down as he jumped for the ball at a corner
• Shawcross handled the ball on the line from Kaboul's shot
• Emmanuel Adebayor's disallowed goal was two yards on-side
• William Gallas was fouled as he went to for a tap-in
• Another handball from a Defoe shot
• Kaboul's dismissal from two soft yellow cards with the second coming when the Stoke player advanced from an offside position
• Woodgate could have had a second yellow card in the first half for a foul on Parker 

Now some will say, "Move on - get over it," and I have but it's out of interest that I ask the question.

When have Spurs ever benefited from refereeing decisions in a game to such an extent as happened against Stoke last weekend?

Every team has been gifted a win where an offside goal was allowed or an undeserved penalty awarded or a crucial decision went in their favour but I'm thinking about times when it appeared that almost every decision was favourable and resulted in a Tottenham win.

It's appropriate to raise the topic a week on from the Stoke game as I was reminded when I was reading 'Vertigo' by John Crace at the weekend that our next opponents, Chelsea, had favourable decisions at Stamford Bridge last season which gave them the three points - the Lampard shot which Heurelho Gomes allowed to slip past him but recovered only for the goal to be awarded and then, their winning goal was offside.

It is undeniable that against Stoke, Spurs found themselves into a difficult position because of poor defending in the first half but the refereeing decisions prevented them from making a comeback and possibly winning the game.  It is also true that if Gomes had dealt properly with Lampard's shot - basic goalkeeping - then Chelsea wouldn't have had the boost of going in level at the interval and that his mistake was the cause of Spurs' downfall.

Our selective 'Spurs' memory always allows us to remember the mistakes that have gone against us while deleting those which were favourable but I can't remember any occasion when Tottenham benefited in such a dramatic way when winning a game since I started following them in 1965.

The one occasion that I do know of when they did have the advantage of poor refereeing which enabled them to win a game was as far back as April, 1952, a few months before my birth.  Spurs beat Huddersfield Town 1 - 0 at White Hart Lane thanks to a goal similar to the one Blackburn scored last month from a corner where Pedersen dribbled into the penalty area having been the only player to touch the ball.  His cross was then finished off by Junior Hoilett. 

Eddie Baily

In Spurs game Eddie Baily who later became Assistant to Bill Nicholson at Spurs, took a corner but the ball struck the referee and rebounded to Baily who crossed for Len Duquemin to head the winning goal.  The goal should have been disallowed as no other player touched the ball before Baily played it a second time.  Despite much protesting from the Huddersfield players the referee was unmoved and his decision stood giving Tottenham the two points for the win with Huddersfield suffering relegation at the season's end.

If anyone can suggest examples of occasions when Spurs wins have come about through controversial decisions by the officials, I would like to know about them. 

Stoke City 2 Tottenham 1

Tottenham's unbeaten run came to an end at Stoke in a game where Spurs struggled defensively to cope with the home side's tactics but in the end were denied the opportunity of a comeback by a poor performance from the referee.

Stoke City 2 Tottenham 1

Scorers:  Etherington (2)                Adebayor (pen)

Team: Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto (Bassong); Lennon (Defoe), Parker, Modric, Bale; Van der Vaart (Giovani dos Santos), Adebayor.  Subs (unused): Gomes, Corluka, Sandro, Pienaar

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Tottenham's unbeaten run was ended by two goals from former player, Matthew Etherington, and the team's inability to cope with the home side's high ball tactics from throw ins and set-pieces.  The fact that Stoke were assisted by a poor refereeing performance from Chris Foy sounds like sour grapes but his leniency to their style of play and his blind spot for offences in their penalty area gave them a considerable advantage in the second half when Spurs were in command.

The only change in the team saw the return of Rafael Van der Vaart in place of Jermain Defoe.  Ledley King was still absent through injury.

Stoke started very quickly with a high pressure game giving Spurs no time on the ball and constantly harrying them.  As against Fulham, Brad Friedel had to make a sharp save in the opening minute to prevent Spurs going behind as Assou-Ekotto's headed clearance from a throw in fell to Etherington.  Unfortunately, Spurs didn't learn from this and were under constant pressure with defenders failing to clear the ball properly as they were having to simply kick it away as Stoke gave them no time to play it out as they usually like to do.  Often the ball was going out for throw-ins and Spurs weakness was immediately highlighted as the pressure built up on them.

In the past Spurs have had additional taller players in the team, Vedran Corluka and Peter Crouch, which eased the pressure but on this occasion they were struggling as a team and were now finding it extremely difficult to cope with former player, Crouch.  They stood off him and let him play the ball as he wished and Spurs paid the penalty after thirteen minutes.  Crouch had seemed to handle the ball as he controlled it but looked to have been shepherded away from danger by William Gallas.  From close to the line, at the near post, however, he managed to squeeze the ball between Friedel's legs, and it reached Etherington who scored.

Stoke continued to dominate and the Spurs defenders were under constant pressure and continually gave the ball away.  When they did get the ball to their midfield players, they found themselves surrounded by a the hard working Stoke players and lost the ball or gave it away with poor passing.  Spurs only forward progress was a couple of long range efforts which were saved comfortably.  It was on the half hour that Spurs started to exert some pressure and Aaron Lennon who switched to the right got a chance to take on Jonathan Woodgate who brought him down.  Woodgate was booked.  This heartened Spurs and they had much more possession and control but were unable to create any clear cut chances as Stoke were quite content to have all eleven men back behind the ball.  Another Spurs attack was stopped when Woodgate floored Scott Parker but the referee just allowed play to carry on as Spurs were in possession and took no further action against the Stoke defender.

Just as it seemed Spurs had enough control to get to the interval with no further mishaps, Stoke broke and from another throw in, Walters headed on and Etherington was following up to score his second, two minutes from half-time.

Harry Redknapp brought on Sebastien Bassong for Assou-Ekotto and replaced Lennon with Defoe.  Lennon was unfortunate to be taken off, Van der Vaart would have been more deserving of being replaced.  Stoke started as in the first half but Spurs were somewhat more composed and gradually started to gain possession and started to put the Stoke defence under pressure.  Bale was causing problems with running from deep and as Spurs built up a momentum, there was some encouragement for them.  On the hour after a period of sustained pressure, Luka Modric took the ball into the area and was brought down.  A penalty - Emmanuel Adebayor scored, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.

Spurs were now in the ascendancy but good goalkeeping by Thomas Sorensen who saved from Parker and poor refereeing by Mr Foy and his assistant, kept Stoke in the game.  Spurs should have had another penalty within four minutes of the first when Kaboul was pulled down as he went for the ball at the resulting corner.  After this mayhem, Kaboul was booked for protesting.  Another hectic spell of Spurs pressure saw Defoe claim a penalty, Kaboul have a shot cleared off the line by Shawcross' arm and then an Adebayor goal in the follow up disallowed for off-side, which he wasn't. 

Sorensen saved from Van der Vaart and Modric and then in a rare break, Kaboul fouled Walters and was sent off for receiving a second yellow card with ten minutes remaining.  This took the impetus from Spurs and it was only at this point that the referee warned Stoke about taking so long over throw-ins and set-pieces.  Rather late as they had been doing it all afternoon to disrupt the flow of the game.  Even the five minutes of added time didn't make up for it.  In the closing minutes Stoke could have increased their lead when Shawcross was left unmarked at two identical corners - Friedel saved the first while the second went over after hitting the bar.

The refereeing situation is best summed up in a report from SB Nation:

'Knowing that Chris Foy wouldn't dare give Spurs another penalty so quickly, Stoke began fouling in the penalty box, breaking up attacks by simply barging players off the ball or kicking them quite hard. Foy and his crew were completely unable to cope, and lost control of the match entirely. There was one ten second spell where Tottenham were denied two penalties, a Stoke red card (Ryan Shawcross elbowed the ball off the line) and had a completely legitimate Adebayor goal disallowed for offside. It was, as they say in the business, a complete farce.'

Spurs run was bound to come to an end and this match with Stoke was where it was most likely to happen.  No one player was at fault, rather it was the team.  They were clearly unprepared to cope with Stoke's high intensity play and their use of the high ball.  They failed to cope with Peter Crouch, something I would have expected Spurs to have been able to do having played with him for two seasons.  The former Tottenham players were obviously well motivated for the game but it was disappointing that this was the match Etherington managed to score his first goals of the season and that Stoke scored their first goals of the season from throw-ins.

Spurs have coped with Stoke's tactics in the past two seasons but were clearly unable to do so today.  The team will now have to regroup and show that they can overcome this setback and start another run through Christmas and into the New Year.

Talking of Mendes' 'Goal'

A Final Thought on that Mendes ‘Goal’
[Things do even themselves out - eventually!]

Article for CaDD – April, 2005

Eddie Baily Goal Wrongly Awarded Against Huddersfield in 1952

The old football adage goes that ‘things even themselves out over the course of the season.’ In many cases this will be true – close calls for off-side, a goal given or disallowed or a penalty awarded for or against. However, this season Spurs have suffered on a number of occasions with decisions that have obviously gone against them but as yet with eight games remaining there has been no sign of similar harsh decisions going in their favour.

The Mendes ‘goal’ at Old Trafford is the obvious one, harsh penalties were conceded at home to both Chelsea and United and at Bolton, but two obvious penalties were missed in the Cup defeat at Newcastle. All of these awards affected the outcome of the games, depriving Spurs of points in the League as well as possible Cup progress. If we accept the common view that such occurrences balance out during the season then Spurs are in for a very productive climax to the season.

A goal at Highbury awarded before the ball goes into the penalty area because the referee was certain it would beat the goalkeeper or a penalty when Kanoute is tripped near the corner flag because he fell so gracefully or a referee will take pity on Defoe and give a penalty because the defender looked as if he was going to trip him, these would help to balance out the injustices that have befallen Spurs this year. Sadly, such occurrences are unlikely.

Perhaps, in the case of Mendes disallowed goal, the wrong will not be righted in a season – it might be more like a lifetime. Having supported Spurs for forty years I can not recall any occasion when something similar occurred either for or against Spurs. However, just three months before I was born Spurs benefited greatly from a referee making a serious mistake.

On Wednesday afternoon, 2nd April, 1952 Spurs were at home to Huddersfield Town who were bottom of the table fighting against relegation while Spurs as defending Champions were in fourth position. The game attracted the lowest attendance of the season, 22,396 and was playing out to an uneventful and dull scoreless draw when Spurs were awarded a corner in the final minute. The referee took up a position nearer the corner flag than the goal and when Eddie Baily took the kick the ball hit the referee and rebounded to him. Baily immediately played the ball a second time, putting in a cross which Len Duquemin headed into the Huddersfield goal. The referee awarded a goal which brought uproar from the Huddersfield players and officials but even after consulting the linesman, the referee stood by his decision.

The referee had made a serious mistake as Baily should not have played the ball twice without another player touching it. Huddersfield should have been awarded a free-kick from the position where Baily played the ball for the second time.

At first, the Huddersfield players refused to re-start the game but there was no mass harassment of the referee and although everyone knew there had been a mistake the result had to stand. In the next programme, Spurs commented on the incident, ‘The referee’s decision is final, and even if we have been the gainers in this instance there have been previous cases in which we have been the sufferers.’

At the end of the season Huddersfield were relegated by three points and while the point they lost that day did not relegate them mathematically, an extra point from that game may have inspired the players to greater efforts in the final six matches of the season. Spurs went on to finish second behind Manchester United and ahead of Arsenal on goal difference so Spurs managed to put one over their North London rivals as a result of that game.

Many people accused Roy Carroll, the United goalkeeper, of not admitting that the ball had crossed the line but on that day in 1952 the Spurs team included such well respected players as Bill Nicholson, Ron Burgess, Eddie Baily, Len Duquemin and Sonny Walters but none of them suggested to the referee that he had made a mistake. In football you have to take what you get and take the rough with the smooth.

The consequences of the Mendes ‘goal’ are still unknown – will Spurs miss out on the financial bonanza of Europe by two points, will they be unable to attract top quality players because they can not offer European football, will Mendes who would have become an overnight hero at the club quietly return to Portugal at the end of the season or will technology be introduced to assist officials in these decisions? Only time will tell but it would be good to see Spurs getting some of the close decisions going their way in the important games in the coming seasons.

Seven years on those questions can be answered - and all responses are in the negative. The non-goal didn't have any bearing on Spurs position and Europe in 2005.  Technology was talked about in the immediate short-lived aftermath of this game and in spite of further errors by referees including England's defeat by Germany in the EWorld Cup Finals, they are no nearer using technology to assist the officials.

Spurs have suffered quite frequently this season, 2011 - 12, as they make a title and Champions League challenge.  Emmanuel Adebayor had had three goals disallowed for offside when clearly onside and the decisions affected the result of the match, referee Foy had a nightmare at Stoke costing Spurs their unbeaten record and the crucial game against Manchester City was decided by a last minute penalty, won and scored, by a player who should have been sent off for dangerous play and has since been suspended for four matches which is of no benefit to Tottenham who now find themselves eight points adrift of City at the top of the Premier League table.