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Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to go joint top of the Premier League after Stoke City beat them 1-0 at White Hart Lane.

A home win would have put Spurs level on points with Manchester United, who play on Sunday, but substitute Glenn Whelan scored with less than five minutes remaining to give the Potters their first league win at Tottenham since 1975.

Whelan made his 50th league appearance for Stoke from the bench after struggling with a calf injury during the week, but came on in the second half to score his fifth goal for Stoke in front of his manager for the Republic of Ireland national team, Giovanni Trapattoni.

Having scored for Ireland in the 2-2 draw with Italy earlier in the month, Whelan did even more to impress his international boss. After Ricardo Fuller had beaten Benoit-Assou Ekotto on the wing and pulled the ball back to him, Whelan lashed his first time shot into the far top corner, giving Heurelho Gomes no chance.

He had already played a part in Tottenham's downfall when he picked up a booking for a 77th-minute foul on Aaron Lennon. The England winger played on for a few more minutes but eventually had to leave the field and go down the tunnel. With Spurs boss Harry Redknapp having already used his three substitutes, his team had to play out the rest of the match with 10 men.

The first of those changes came early in the first half, as the returning Jonathan Woodgate was forced off. Woodgate had started ahead of Ledley King, making his first appearance since May, and the injury-blighted defender lasted all of 15 minutes on his first-team comeback.

With the match just a few minutes old, former Spurs winger Matthew Etherington fired a ball across goal bound for Fuller at the far post, only for Woodgate to dive in front of him and steer the ball away with a heroic header.

Woodgate suffered a blow to the head making that clearance, and went off to receive treatment. Although he tried to carry on, Redknapp replaced him with Michael Dawson soon afterwards.

Stoke were forced into making a dramatic goalline clearance themselves in the first-half. Peter Crouch, starting in place of the suspended Jermain Defoe, saw his header at the far post acrobatically hacked away by James Beattie.

It was the first time Crouch had got the better of goalkeeper Steve Simonsen, who started the match at short notice after Thomas Sorensen pulled out.

The Potters' reserve acquitted himself well with some good saves in the first half, tipping an earlier Crouch header wide and denying Lennon's curling effort from distance.

Niko Kranjcar had the beating of Simonsen with a well-struck effort of his own, but the low shot cannoned of the foot of the post.

After the break Robbie Keane was also denied by the keeper with a shot on the turn, before another Crouch header was cleared by Dean Whitehead.

Tottenham had created almost all of the game's chances, but they were almost hit with a sucker punch when Fuller dug out a cross for James Beattie that he headed wide.

Both managers had attacking quality to introduce from the bench, and Roman Pavlyuchenko and Tuncay Sanli both came on with points to prove to their respective bosses.

Pavlyuchenko looked lively, but his handful of efforts never threatened to trouble Simonsen unduly, while Tuncay's first effort from a Stoke break was blocked en route to goal.

Right after the loss of Lennon gave Stoke the numerical advantage, Tuncay almost capitalised with a drilled shot from the edge of the box that flew just past the post.

Tottenham's third substitute, Jermaine Jenas, had a late chance to equalise with a free-kick, but his set-piece strike went over the bar and Spurs fell to defeat a week before they face local rivals Arsenal.

Tony Mabert / Eurosport