Adebayor brace breaks Baggies

Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor continued his rich vein of goalscoring form with a double at The Hawthorns.

Shorey foul leads to Tottenham equaliser from spot

Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor continued his rich vein of goalscoring form with a double in a 3-1 win over West Brom at The Hawthorns. The Togo hitman had to count himself lucky for his first goal however when, following a Nicky Shorey foul in the box on Aaron Lennon, his spot-kick was initially saved by Ben Foster. However, Adebayor was in the right place to latch on to the loose ball and lift it over the West Brom No.1 for the equaliser. Roy Hodgson's men had taken the lead through a superb Youssouf Mulumbu header who guided home a sublime Steve Reid delivery. Spurs then shifted gears in the second half as a resilient West Brom ran out of legs. The hosts failed to challenge a Jermain Defoe run as the England striker smashed a powerful effort past Foster for Tottenham's second and his seventh of the campaign. Harry Redknapp's men made sure of the points late on when a Younes Kaboul clearance fell to Gareth Bale who laid it off to Adebayor to slide the third into the net. Those goals mean Adebayor takes his tally to four in six days and Spurs pile the pressure on Manchester United who are just two points in front of them in second with Redknapp's side having a game in hand. And Tottenham find themselves on an impressive 10-game unbeaten run, having amassed nine wins and one draw in the Premier League.

Teasing ball

However it was in fact Albion, who left Peter Odemwingie on the bench having been injured, who went ahead when Reid was given a bit of space to deliver a teasing ball into the box and Mulumbu connected with a perfect header into the corner of Brad Friedel's net. Albion suffered a setback after 20 minutes when Zoltan Gera went down in agony unchallenged clutching his left knee as he attempted to block a Benoit Assou-Ekotto clearance. He was unable to continue and was replaced by Simon Cox. Sandro became the first player to be yellow carded a minute later for a strong challenge on James Morrison and from then was walking a bit of a tightrope with every tackle of his being disputed by the Hawthorns faithful. But it was Shorey who ended up being the guilty party when he was adjudged to have pushed over Lennon in the box and referee Lee Probert was in no doubt but to award the spot-kick. That penalty is the third Albion have conceded in their last three home games. Adebayor stepped up to the spot and saw his initial effort blocked by Foster but the on-loan Manchester City striker converted the rebound. Albion appealed in vain for a penalty of their own after Kyle Walker challenged Jerome Thomas in the area in what was a feisty encounter between the two all afternoon. However, the appeals seemed hopeful as Probert waved play on. Foster was called into action and managed to hold on to a curling Defoe attempt before Albion defender Gareth McAuley was adjudged to have fouled Friedel as Albion claimed he had carried a Reid cross over his own goal-line. Mulumbu found himself in the book after making his feelings known to the referee after he was fouled by the already-booked Sandro.

Entertaining match

Friedel blocked a low shot from Mulumbu with his legs after he had made a purposeful run into the box as both sides went on the attack in an entertaining match in the Midlands. Tottenham were the brighter of the two in the second half and Scott Parker teed up an early chance for Adebayor, however Foster parried away the striker's rising shot. Cox should have done better when he found himself unmarked, however his header was straight at Friedel from Morrison's inviting ball. Reid came to Albion's rescue when he cleared Defoe's goalbound shot from a narrow angle off the line after he had evaded Jonas Olsson and Foster. Foster made another fine save to block a point-blank range effort from Adebayor after a deflected cross from Bale had broken to him. Roy Hodgson made his first change with just under 20 minutes to spare when he replaced the limping Shane Long with Odemwingie. Reid made a crucial tackle to take the sting out of an Adebayor shot which trickled through to Foster before Brunt could have snatched the win for the Baggies but he smashed his first-time shot over the bar. With nine minutes left, Defoe beat Foster with a low drive from an Adebayor flick after the Baggies defence back-tracked and seemingly ran out of legs. Defoe then had another close-range attempt deflected wide and Adebayor shot past the post from close range before the loan star made it 3-1 in stoppage-time from Bale's pass.

West Bromwich Albion	Team Statistics	Tottenham Hotspur
1	Goals	3
1	1st Half Goals	1
5	Shots on Target	11
4	Shots off Target	9
2	Blocked Shots	6
1	Corners	10
11	Fouls	13
1	Offsides	4
2	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
78.5	Passing Success	87.7
24	Tackles	21
75	Tackles Success	66.7
43.9	Possession	56.1
53.4	Territorial Advantage	46.6
368	Total Passes	481
23	Total Crosses	23
143	Lost Balls	144
51	Recoveries	63