Whereas Defoe’s goal earned Tottenham a draw in the cup at West Brom five days earlier, Spurs fell further behind to two late goals in Greater Manchester and the scoreline was beginning to resemble the one suffered at Crystal Palace in their previous league encounter.That was until the England striker linked up with Robbie Keane to score a 68th minute equaliser, but Spurs were unable to avoid a third successive defeat in the Premiership.
The antics of referee Mike Dean did nothing to help Tottenham’s cause and a number of key moments allowed the home side to leapfrog Spurs into eighth place and closer to a UEFA Cup place which had almost seemed Tottenham’s destiny in the run up to Christmas.
Fredi Kanoute received a second yellow for a poorly timed challenge on Bolton’s Anthony Barness minutes after the fracas after Dean had failed to spot a handball by Bolton’s Ivan Campo. The Tottenham players couldn’t believe their misfortune, and Kanoute and Ledley King took their protests at the decision not to award a penalty too far according to the official who dished out cautions to both players.
"I don’t think I deserved to be sent off and I still can’t quite believe it happened. I should never have picked up a card for dissent because I didn’t swear at the ref and I didn’t abuse him. All I was doing was trying to talk to him about a couple of decisions," said Kanoute.
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Tottenham’s assistant coach Chris Hughton was in support of his forward who now faces suspension after missing four games last month to injury.
"These are two lads (Kanoute and King) who rarely get booked so that says how strongly they felt. We were more than annoyed that Fredi got his first booking and that obviously led to him being sent off," said assistant coach Chris Hughton.
Earlier on the Wirral official awarded the home side a contentious penalty, converted by El Hadji Diouf, after adjudging Erik Edman to have handled in the area.
"I got a push (from Kevin Davies) and the ball hit my shoulder, it was definitely not on purpose. I thought it was more a free-kick to us," Edman told the official site.