English FA Premiership/ Tottenham Hotspur 2 Birmingham City 0: Steve Bruce was once unfamiliar with adversity, but he is being rudely acquainted with it at present. Yesterday Birmingham picked up their fifth red card - more than any other Premiership team - while conceding a fifth penalty of the season.

For a side in Birmingham's position these facts bite, though their application could not be faulted.

Nevertheless, effort and finesse only threw the result into more painful relief for a side whose helplessness had been hardened by the apparent injustice of some of the referee Phil Dowd's decisions. Having granted a penalty to Tottenham for Matthew Upson's foul on Robbie Keane, which would surely not have won a free-kick had it been outside the area, Dowd sent off Muzzy Izzet for a "dive" that might have given Birmingham their first penalty of the season. Bruce was gnawed by the suggestion of double standards.

"I'm skint at the minute, I haven't had much bonus lately, so I'm not going to say what I think," said Bruce, before saying exactly what he thought. "They were two harsh decisions, Muzzy was booked in the first half for absolutely nothing, and then to be sent off for a so-called dive - well, did Robbie Keane not make a meal of it? I think everybody witnessed that. I have the utmost respect for that referee normally, but today he was poor, to say the least, on those decisions."

Had Izzet not ploughed through the back of Keane's legs in the first period, the second-half yellow card would not have had the same consequences. Bruce overlooked this. "Muzzy's one of the best professionals I've ever worked with," he said. "He hadn't looked for a penalty, he hadn't thrown himself around and, when I see Keane throwing himself to the ground the way he did, that's frustrating."

Keane did indeed leap like a salmon when he felt Upson's arms around his waist in what was an error of judgment from the Birmingham defender.

It was unfortunate, because Upson had been exemplary in stifling the aerial threat of Mido.

Before six minutes had passed Birmingham's Neil Kilkenny had centred for Jiri Jarosik eight yards out. The Czech international seemed a certain scorer as he angled his shot towards the near post, but Paul Robinson pulled off the first of a series of fine saves. Kilkenny and Jarosik again combined on 34 minutes with a set-piece move that saw the former Chelsea midfielder head just wide.

Then Kenny Cunningham crossed from deep for Emile Heskey, who should have done better than head wide.

Ledley King responded for Tottenham with his own close-range shot that Maik Taylor did well to block, but Birmingham still had more to offer.

It was the visitors who emerged the more aggressively from the half-time break, and Jarosik was again allowed space in the box that Michael Dawson could only partially close.

The Czech's effort ricocheted off Dawson's foot to Julian Gray, who thumped a shot to Robinson's right he somehow scrambled away. With every thwarted chance, Birmingham's Premiership predicament became more apparent, allowing Keane's smartly taken penalty disproportionately to deflate the visitors.

Another win kept Spurs fourth, but it was substitute Jermain Defoe's strike that will resonate most in their fans' memories. The England international advanced from the half-way line with Cunningham backing off and into the area, dispatching his shot ferociously into the roof of the net at Taylor's near post.

"He's capable of that," said assistant manager Chris Hughton, in lieu of Martin Jol but with all the Dutchman's understatement.

Guardian Service