The consolation for Sam Allardyce was that he did not do Rafael Benítez a favour. Had Allardyce's Rovers stunted Tottenham's push for a top-four finish and, indirectly, helped Liverpool and Benítez, it might have stuck in his jowls. Allardyce cannot see eye-to-eye with the Liverpool manager, to put it mildly.
The Blackburn manager, though, endured a frustrating afternoon as his team's woeful away form continued. They started brightly and had a decent shout for a penalty turned down, but when you concede the sorts of goal they did, you generally get what you deserve.
Tottenham were not at their best, despite another marauding performance from in-form Gareth Bale, but they did enough. Jermain Defoe plundered his 23rd goal of the season and Roman Pavlyuchenko might have finished with a hat-trick. He jammed Tottenham's second under substitute Rovers keeper Jason Brown. Then, after Christopher Samba's headed riposte for Rovers, the Russian added his eighth in six matches from Bale's wonderful first-time centre.
But for an athletic and acrobatic clearance by Samba, Pavlyuchenko would have scored again to make it 4-1, with Brown marooned out of position. "Samba was the only player in the world who could have stopped that," said the Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp.
Howard Webb, who will be England's representative at the World Cup finals in South Africa, provided the sideshow. Having ignored David Dunn's penalty appeal for Rovers in the 19th minute, he did likewise with Bale's in the second half after Míchel Salgado's lunge. Webb also ignored a trip by Morten Gamst Pedersen on Bale, on the fringe of the area, and disallowed an 89th-minute Nikola Kalinic effort for Rovers for handball.
"Let's just say, first of all, the main reason we lost was our poor defending," said Allardyce. "But the Dunn incident was a major decision that went against us. It was a blatant penalty and I felt we should have had another when Sébastien Bassong jumped all over Chris Samba in the 43rd minute. Kalinic's shot, too, was wrongly ruled out. The ball hit him on the arm, but it was contact from Michael Dawson that threw him off balance."
Redknapp could afford to sympathise with Allardyce on the touchline. "Sam said to me: 'This referee's not very good, Harry old chap, is he?' And I said: 'No Sam, you're spot on, he's not so good at times,' " said Redknapp. "I don't seem to have any luck with Howard Webb. He's given decisions that have really cost us – Manchester United last season, Chelsea this season. I thought Blackburn could have had a penalty as well."
Blackburn had threatened through Dunn, Samba and Martin Olsson before the first penalty shout. Dunn barrelled into the area and, challenged by Vedran Corluka, went down in a tangle of limbs. Corluka was nowhere near the ball.
Corluka played the central role in Tottenham's breakthrough, flicking on for Defoe to prod past Brown, who had come on for Paul Robinson; the former Tottenham goalkeeper tore a muscle in his calf and will be out for a month.
Pavlyuchenko spurned two first-half chances, but would hear praise from Redknapp for the cutting edge he showed after the interval. Allardyce, by contrast, used words such as "suicidal" and "diabolical" to describe his team's defending.
THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT
BILL ALFREY, PlanetSpurs.com From a home fan's point of view, it was a nice afternoon out. We played very well and didn't do too much wrong. In the first half, we had a few chances to score before Defoe put us ahead, but, overall, there were very few mistakes, such as stray passes. To be fair, Blackburn didn't come to defend – they tried to play football with us. Bale has been our best player in the past month or so and it's good we've got someone like him on the wing, who's got a bit of pace and can get in crosses. Modric also played well and controlled the midfield, and Palacios was excellent. It'll be tough to hold on to fourth – it'll be us or Man City.
The fan's player ratings Gomes 7; Corluka 7, Dawson 8, Bassong 7, Assou-Ekotto 7; Kranjcar 7, Palacios 8, Modric 8 (Gudjohnsen 88 n/a), Bale 8; Pavlyuchenko 9, Defoe 8 (Crouch 81 n/a)
MARCUS TATTERSALL, Observer reader After starting well, we reverted to old bad habits. Because we're safe, for the past few weeks the shackles have come off and we've played with more adventure, but we didn't pressure Tottenham. We didn't close them down and they didn't break into a sweat. We had no pace going forward and Salgado was made to look silly by Bale . When Robinson went off, it seemed to be the signal for us to panic and play a ridiculous formation with no support for the front players. Kalinic is a class act, but he was crying out for support. Lunchtime games offer no atmosphere – it was like a pre-season friendly.
The fan's player ratings Robinson 6 (Brown 25 4); Salgado 3, Samba 7, Givet 6 (Di Santo 73 6), Chimbonda 4; Nzonzi 5; Emerton 5 (Andrews 61 6), Dunn 4, Pedersen 6, Olsson 6; Kalinic 8
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