The Hindu : Sport / Football : Hull and Stoke chalk up wins

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Tuesday, Oct 21, 2008
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Hull and Stoke chalk up wins

LONDON: Hull City gate-crashed the Premier League’s top four again on Sunday with a 1-0 home defeat of West Ham United — its fifth win in eight league games in its debut season in the top flight.

Stoke City, another of the promoted clubs, beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 later to leave the London club rooted to the bottom of the table with just two points.

Tottenham ended the game with nine men after Gareth Bale and Michael Dawson were both sent off while a third Spurs defender, Vedran Corluka, suffered a head injury and was carried off the field unconscious.

Michael Turner headed in Hull’s winner from an Andy Dawson corner after 51 minutes to make it three consecutive wins against London clubs after away victories at Arsenal and Tottenham before the international break.

Hull, favourite for relegation before the season, is now behind only Chelsea and Liverpool (20 points) in the league with 17 points, above both fourth-placed Arsenal and champion Manchester United in fifth.

Chances wasted

West Ham wasted several good chances including Wales striker Craig Bellamy firing over the crossbar from in front of goal just before the break.

Tottenham’s afternoon began miserably when Bale was sent off after 19 minutes for tripping Tom Soares in the area and Danny Higginbotham buried the penalty low into the corner. The visitor played some tidy football in response and Darren Bent equalised six minutes later.

Stoke went back in front after 53 minutes when Rory Delap converted a low cross and things soon unravelled for Spurs.

Corluka was caught in the head by the knee of his own goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes and was carried off after a seven-minute stoppage.

Ricardo Fuller then missed another penalty for Stoke before Dawson was harshly sent off for a tackle on Mamade Sidibe.

The results: Hull 1 ( Turner 51 ) bt West Ham 0; Stoke 2 ( Higginbotham 19-pen, Delap 53 ) bt Tottenham 1 ( Bent 25 ). — Agencies