STOKE City could issue a formal complaint to refereeing chiefs in the wake of Mike Dean's controversial handling of Saturday's 2-1 defeat against Tottenham.

Stoke had already tried and failed to prevent Dean being appointed to any more Stoke games this season by writing last week to the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMO), which oversees referees and their appointments.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis, pictured right, rang PGMO chief, former referee Mike Riley, to register his concerns over Dean.

But the appointments for Saturday's fixtures had already been made.

Dean has been responsible for three of the four red cards shown to Stoke players this season, and those three account for almost half of Dean's seven dismissals in his 33 fixtures during the campaign.

Pulis said: "We sent a letter saying we didn't think we received a fair crack of the whip with Mike Dean, while I spoke to Mike Riley about our concerns about him.

"We wanted to see if we could at least avoid him until the end of the season, but they had already selected the official."

Pulis was fuming after Dean sent off Dean Whitehead on Saturday for a second bookable offence following a foul on Luka Modric in the 49th minute.

He said: "It was definitely a free-kick, but is it a booking and worth sending a player off? I don't think so. Mike got his card out much too quickly.

"Football is a game of challenges. Honest, fair challenges are good. Against top players like Modric who move the ball quickly, there's going to be mistimed challenges."

Pulis said the club had provided the PGMO with statistics on such issues as bookings and free-kicks to compare Stoke games with Dean in charge alongside those refereed by other officials.

He added: "We are making a case that Mike Dean doesn't do very well for Stoke.

"We compiled an in-depth set of statistics, but nobody takes any notice and he gets the game again. I will not speak to him because it's a waste of time."

Pulis will consult with chairman Peter Coates and chief executive Tony Scholes before deciding whether to lodge a formal complaint to increase the chances of avoiding Dean as referee in the near future.

Whitehead, who has no right of appeal because it was a second yellow card, misses Saturday's trip to West Ham after only his second dismissal in 369 senior appearances for Oxford, Sunderland and Stoke.

Match analysis: Pages 48-51