• FA Cup

Harry sees funny side as Bernstein watches bore draw

Harry Redknapp had an uncomfortable afternoon © PA Photos

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Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp joked that David Bernstein would have been distinctly unimpressed after the FA chairman turned up to watch Spurs' FA Cup draw against Stevenage.

Redknapp is widely considered to be the runaway favourite to get the vacant England manager's job - a fact seemingly borne out by Bernstein's decision to make the trip to the Lamex Stadium in order to watch Redknapp's Spurs side in action on Sunday.

Tottenham were poor in the fifth round tie, however, unable to break the deadlock as they succumbed to a rather drab 0-0 draw with the League One side. And Redknapp joked afterwards that the game probably wasn't the best advert for his managerial talents.

"I bet he was impressed with the football I served up," Redknapp said of Bernstein's visit. "He was probably thinking: 'Who is this geezer?!"'

The former West Ham United and Portsmouth manager blamed the condition of the pitch at Broadhall Way for some of the football his side displayed, which involved an uncharacteristic number of long balls.

"I just had a feeling, looking at the pitch and everything, that it would be tough," Redknapp added. "It was bobbling around everywhere.

"We started lumping it. That wasn't part of the plan but the lads weren't comfortable passing the ball out there and we ended up going long.

"I thought we would come here and win but the longer it went on the more I thought we would take the draw."

The club were without a number of key players for the contest, but Redknapp insisted they were not long-term concerns.

"Benoit [Assou-Ekotto] had a small operation at the start of the week," he revealed. "[Emmanuel] Adebayor did his knee on Friday morning. He twisted it. We thought he might have opened his ligament up but it's not too bad and then Luka [Modric] had an unbelievable temperature."

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