Etherington brace earns Stoke victory

Matthew Etherington scored two goals to earn Stoke City a deserved victory against a high flying Tottenham ending their eleven match unbeaten run.

Stoke City started brightly with Ryan Shotton's long throw finding its way to Etherington, whose shot was saved by Friedel.

Etherington had another shot in the 7th minute with his weaker right foot, which also ended up in Friedel's hands.

Ryan Shotton was taking Rory Delap-esque long throws and one of those almost led to Stoke taking the lead in the 9th minute. His throw was flicked on by Crouch, Huth's resulting header went narrowly over the net.

Stoke were looking strong and they had to only wait another four minutes to take the lead. Crouch collected a high ball from Walters and drew away two defenders and the keeper before passing to Etherington who shot into an empty net.

Spurs were struggling to find their rhythm, with Van der Vaart's 25 yard strike being safely gathered by Sorensen.

Modric got a chance in the 20th minute, but his 20 yard drive was expertly parried away by the Stoke keeper.

However, it was Stoke that added to their tally two minutes before half time, with the chance coming off another Ryan Shotton long throw. The throw was flicked on by Walters into the path of Etherington, who made no mistake from four yards out.

The half ended with Stoke 2-0 up and looking very comfortable.

Harry Redknapp wanted to change things in the second half and made two substitutions to do so, with Jermain Defoe and Sebastien Bassong coming on the Aaron Lennon and Assou-Ekoto.

However, the pair were unable to exert much influence on the game initially.

Tottenham were awarded a penalty in the 61st minute after Luka Modric was caught by Whelan's leg inside the penalty area. Adebayor sent Sorensen the wrong way to pull one back for Tottenham and restore some belief in the squad.

The goal seemed to wake Tottenham up and they started launching wave after wave of attack. Modric fed Parker in the 65th minute who took a 20 yard shot, but Sorensen was quick to react and made the save.

Adebayor was next to have a go just a minute later, but his curled shot was just wide of the post.

Tottenham's best chance came in the 74th minute, when Kaboul had the chance to fire into an empty net with Sorensen having fallen down. However, his shot was headed off the line by Shawcross.

Tottenham's attacking impetus ended in the 82nd minute, when Kaboul was shown his second yellow card of the game for a last man foul on Walters.

Stoke looked to capitalize on this and threatened with a few corners, with one seeing Ryan Shawcross' header going out off the post.

However, the game ended with Stoke victorious, and Tottenham beaten at last. The result leaves Tottenham in third place with a game in hand. Stoke move up to eighth with 21 points as they look for European qualification.