Pulis delight with shoot-out reward

Stoke boss Tony Pulis was delighted to see his players rewarded at the end of a long evening after they beat Tottenham on penalties to advance to the Carling Cup fourth round.

The Potters triumphed 7-6 in the shoot-out at the Britannia Stadium thanks to Thomas Sorensen's save from Spurs debutant Massimo Luongo. The game had finished 0-0 with Sorensen palming a Roman Pavlyuchenko strike over the bar in the 53rd minute and Jon Walters failing to convert a one-on-one chance for the hosts in extra time.

"The big thing with today's game is that we have had to play extra-time and then penalties," said Pulis, whose side bounced back from a 4-0 thumping at Sunderland on Sunday - their first defeat of the season. "I think when you have to go through all of that, getting beaten then would have been a massive downer for us.

Stoke suffered an early setback when Kenwyne Jones pulled up with an injury in the 10th minute and had to limp off. Pulis confirmed it was a hamstring problem and that the striker - who was replaced by former Spurs man Peter Crouch - would be assessed tomorrow.

"We won't know the extent until tomorrow," said the Stoke boss. "It is his hamstring, so he'll have a scan tomorrow and then we'll know."

After Walters and Jermain Defoe had scored their penalties to make it 1-1 in the shoot-out, Tottenham were given the chance to seize the initiative when Jermaine Pennant crashed Stoke's second spot-kick against the crossbar.

Pavlyuchenko promptly blazed his over, though, and after a series of successful kicks, Luongo's failure to beat Sorensen was decisive.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp praised Luongo for having the courage to take the penalty.

"He is okay, of course," Redknapp said. "If Pavlyuchenko had scored, he wouldn't have had to take one, would he? It would have been all over, but that is how it goes.

"The kid had the bottle to step up and take one - so did young Tom Carroll and Jake Livermore, so that was good."