Fulham 0 Tottenham H 0:FULHAM HAVE become such a power at home this season that on the face of it Tottenham should be grateful for a second chance in their FA Cup quarter-final. Harry Redknapp, the Spurs manager, implied as much afterwards after the game but, had the quality of his team's finishing matched the slickness of their build-ups, they might already be in the last four instead of facing a replay which could clog up their aim of finishing in the Premier League's first four.

If the performance proved anything it was that, while Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko might be in excellent form individually, they are not yet an item as an attacking partnership. The predatory instincts of Jermain Defoe, whose contribution was restricted to the last nine minutes by a hamstring problem, were badly missed as the Anglo-Russian pair struggled to maintain a tenuous link near goal. “We kept possession well enough although we didn’t create enough chances,” Redknapp admitted.

Yet the opportunity to create openings was always there and often stemmed from Gareth Bale’s consistency in outwitting Fulham’s defence on the left. The young Welshman has rarely played better.

Normally he advances from left-back but here he was used as a wide man in midfield, which meant the threat to Fulham was more immediate and more frequent. The ease with which Bale reached the byline and switched the ball into the goalmouth with crosses which were more like rifle shots (in sharp contrast to Vedran Corluka’s blunderbuss on the other flank) should have created more scoring attempts. And too many of those were off target.

In the end Spurs’ Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes had a busier evening than Fulham’s Mark Schwarzer, particularly at the start of the second half when Roy Hodgson’s players managed to up their previously pedestrian tempo and get more people forward to support Bobby Zamora.

Gomes made a series of sharp saves, the best to keep out a goal-bound header from Zoltan Gera, and reaffirmed his status as a goalkeeper of genuine class.

For Fulham an FA Cup replay is equally unwelcome as they prepare to face Juventus over two legs in the Europa League, with the small matter of a visit to Manchester United in-between. Fulham’s squad has already been stretched by injuries to Andrew Johnson, Clint Dempsey, Paul Konchesky and John Paintsil and the absence of Danny Murphy from midfield was noticeable.