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FIVE FOR DEFOE AS SPURS HIT NINE
Jermain Defoe gets the match ball for his five-goal haul.
Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe scored five times to send his side back into the Champions League places as Harry Redknapp's men hammered Wigan 9-1 at White Hart Lane.
Paul Scharner appeared to handle when he grabbed Wigan's goal - at which point they momentarily trailed 3-1 - but there was no controversy as Defoe was rampant.
Aaron Lennon, Peter Crouch, a Chris Kirkland own goal and Niko Kranjcar accounted for Tottenham's other four goals.
The clash was played on a Sunday following an agreement between the clubs so players could rest after the international break - and Defoe seemed the freshest of the players on display by grabbing his goals in the second half.
Blackburn ended a run of 10 successive defeats on the road in the Barclays Premier League with a 2-0 win at Bolton that gave a welcome boost to the absent Sam Allardyce.
Allardyce is set to have surgery on a heart condition and missed the game with the club he played for and managed.
His team did him proud though with midfielder David Dunn capping a superb performance by making the breakthrough.
Bolton's misery was complete when full-back Sam Ricketts scored a bizarre own goal in the second half.
In the day's final game, striker Ricardo Fuller applied a clinical finish to a neat passing move to give Stoke a 1-0 victory at home to Portsmouth.
The Jamaican's turn and shot in the 74th minute came after a swift interchange of passes between Matthew Etherington and Dean Whitehead.
Pompey, who lost England goalkeeper David James to a calf injury in the warm-up, had earlier missed an eighth-minute penalty from Kevin-Prince Boateng.
