Stoke City 1–2 Tottenham Hotspur on 20 March 2010

Tottenham earned a vital win over 10-man Stoke to further press their claim for a Champions League spot, moving four points clear of Liverpool.

First-half substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen scored his first goal since joining Spurs on loan from Monaco straight after half-time to put them ahead.

Stoke had Dean Whitehead sent off two minutes later before Matthew Etherington equalised with a penalty.

Niko Kranjcar earned Spurs the points, firing in Benoit Assou-Ekotto's cross.

With the race for the Premier League's coveted fourth place hotting up, Spurs have boosted their chances, especially with rivals Aston Villa dropping two points in a 2-2 draw with Wolves at Villa Park earlier in the day.

Spurs had not won at Stoke since Garth Crooks scored the only goal 25 years ago but Gudjohnsen and Kranjcar put paid to that statistic.

Within seconds of the start of the second half Gudjohnsen broke the deadlock with his first Premier League goal since January 2006.

Peter Crouch laid the ball off to the former Chelsea star, on as replacement for the injured Roman Pavluychenko who has a hamstring problem, and the 32-year-old Icelandic striker held off Stoke captain Abdoulaye Faye to fire into the top of the net.

Stoke immediately set about restoring parity, putting Spurs under pressure.

But then to compound their efforts, within four minutes of the restart, they were reduced to 10 men when Whitehead saw red for a second bookable offence for a challenge on Luka Modric - it was the third time this season referee Mike Dean has sent off a Stoke player.

The goal gave Spurs the impetus they needed and they could have added to their tally with Assou-Ekotto going close.

But despite being a man down the home side did not give up and were awarded a penalty in the 64th minute when Assou-Ekotto pushed Dave Kitson in the back and the referee had no choice but to point to the spot.

The spot-kick was despatched coolly by former Tottenham man Etherington, who slotted it into the right-hand corner, sending Heurelho Gomes the wrong way.

And the Potters should have taken the lead six minutes later when Ricardo Fuller was guilty of one of the misses of the season after he skied Danny Higginbotham's shot over the bar from a few yards out with an open goal to aim at.

Spurs made them pay dearly for that miss when Kranjcar scored the winner on 77 minutes.

After giving away the penalty, Assou-Ekotto made amends by crossing the ball, which Gudjohnsen cleverly stepped over, allowing the Croat to fire past Thomas Sorensen with a terrific right-foot finish.

Chances had been few and far between in the first half with Faye going closest for Stoke, heading just wide after Kitson had flicked on Glenn Whelan's cross.

Potters skipper Faye also produced some admirable defending at the other end, preventing Gareth Bale from realising the trigger right on the stroke of half-time.

Spurs join Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Birmingham in leaving the Britannia Stadium with all three points this season and have certainly shown their top-four credentials.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp on the game: "It's a difficult place to come. The crowd were fantastic. It was an intimidating atmosphere but a good atmosphere. You never get an easy game here." Redknapp on Gudjohnsen: "I want to keep him here next year. He's a real top player and he's got fantastic ability. With Jermain Defoe out injured he has got a big part to play.

"The chairman did the deal for him and I don't know the details but we are certainly interested. The rest of the lads like him and they really love playing with him."

Stoke manager Tony Pulis on referee Mike Dean: "I rang Mike Riley on Wednesday and told him my concerns about Mike Dean. I was just seeing if we could change the referee because we weren't happy.

"I just thought it (the sending-off) was a very, very poor decision. We've had him earlier in the season and he's made poor decisions and we compiled stats on him."