Sunderland 0 Tottenham Hotspur 0: match report This was a game high in mistakes, but low in goalscoring chances as both sides played in fits and starts. Tottenham were marginally the more impressive, although this was hardly a vintage display as Sunderland made things as difficult as they could for them in midfield, where captain Lee Cattermole was at his snappy, irritating best. Craig Gardner did get a half sight of the Spurs goal early on when he was found in some space 25 yards out. The midfielder is normally dangerous from that sort of range, but this time he shanked his shot wide. Emmanuel Adebayor felt he should have had a penalty when his header hit the arm of Phil Bardsley, Sunderland thought they deserved one when Scott Parker mis-controlled the ball inside his own area and it spun into his chest and hand. That these were the two stand out moments of the first 45 minutes summed up the quality of the affair and things did not get much better in the second-half. Gareth Bale did manage to get on the end of a cross from Assou-Ekotto, and as he was running on to it, his header had the power to beat Mignolet, but not the precision. James McClean almost got on the end of a centre from Seb Larsson almost immediately at the other end, but William Gallas - as he had been all afternoon - was in the right place to deal with the danger. As the atmosphere evaporated inside the stadium, both managers tried to inject a spark with their substitutions and Tottenham's Aaron Lennon did create an opening for Rafael van der Vaart, but having got the ball over Mignolet, Michael Turner got back to block a chip that was probably drifting wide anyway. A loose ball from Jack Colback almost sent Bale in, only for Gardner to halt his progress with a sturdy block on the edge of the area that left the Welsman crumpled in a heap.