City Sentinel: Spurs win so crucial to City's chances

THERE are many things in life that I miss: the John Peel Show, Sportsnight and having a full head of hair, for example.

One thing I can most definitely cope without, though, is seeing my beloved Potters slumming it in the Championship ... and below.

That's why Sunday's result against Spurs was so important. Had we lost – and years of bitter experience had led me to believe we would – then things really would have started to look bleak for Stoke.

However, we didn't, and now we're gunning for the heady heights of 17th place.

Tottenham were shockingly bad. Apart from the end of the first half, when SCFC lit up the proverbial cigars (well, the players might as well, seeing as the fans aren't allowed to any more) and invited their opponents to indulge in some ultimately pointless passing manoeuvres, they just didn't have a clue.

I kept half an eye on their technical area during the game. Juande Ramos looked completely bemused by the events unfolding before him, and unless Spurs do what the Boothen End was predicting they would, it's hard to see them avoiding the drop.

Stoke still had to win the game, mind. Higginbotham – who's looked quality since he came back – deserves a lot of credit for calmly dispatching his penalty at the 49th attempt. He must wish he'd taken the second one, too!

That's not in any way to cast blame on Ricardo for his miss. He lit up an already entertaining match when he came on for Dave Kitson and, along with Tom Soares, ran a depleted Spurs defence ragged.

Praise must also go to Rory Delap, who was my man of the match – his constant running and tidy passing, not to mention his goal, hopefully showed the watching nation there's much more to his game than bionic throw-ins.

In the end it could easily have been a victory by the four-goal margin that was required to take us out of the relegation zone, but perhaps I'm just being greedy.

It will surely be a long time before we play such a shambles as Spurs again, and Man City away is a completely different proposition.

We can't hope to fall asleep for a quarter of the game and get away with it against them, so let's hope that the rollicking the team apparently got off TP at half-time last weekend is still ringing in their ears!