Defoe: Earned praise from manager
Defoe made his first start in the Premier League since early October in place of the injured Rafael van der Vaart.
He linked up well with two-goal Emmanuel Adebayor as Tottenham took their points tally to 28 from the last 10 games to maintain their push for a Champions League spot.
Redknapp said: “We lost Rafael with a hamstring injury but Jermain has been in fantastic form.
“We had a reserve game on Tuesday and he got five goals against Charlton and he looked so sharp.
“Some of his play in the second half today was fantastic.”
Redknapp added: “Jermain has been unlucky. I can only play him or Rafa who has played well and scored goals.
“He had that run of five or six goals in five games so it has been difficult for Jermain and I felt sorry for him.
“I told him that but there was nothing I could do. I’ve got Adebayor and one to play with him.”
Redknapp praised his side for recovering from going behind to Youssouf Mulumbu’s first goal of the season.
He said: “We started poorly and didn’t move the ball quick enough.
“They started better than we did and went in front and there was more chance of them going two up at that time than us pegging it back.
“But then the first time we upped the pace of the game we got the penalty but in the second half we opened them up and should have scored a lot more goals.”
Albion have now conceded four penalties in the last five games.
Baggies head coach Roy Hodgson chose his words carefully and initially said: “I don’t want to be talking about penalties. You make your own mind up. I’m not prepared to talk about it.
But then Hodgson added: “We’ve had more penalties given against us, I think, than any other team.
“I see players go down in our penalty areas after challenges which don’t look particularly vicious.
“Then I see our players go down in the penalty area which don’t look vicious.
“The referee makes the decision which he thinks are the ones to give and not the ones to give.”
Albion lost the services of key midfielder Zoltan Gera after 20 minutes when he went down clutching his knee.
Hodgson said: “He will have a scan tonight. It is his left knee. He has twisted it.
“We missed him enormously and (striker) Shane Long could only play 70 minutes. He’s had a groin problem all week.
“But I thought the shape of the team was good, the passing was good, the movement was good and the result was crap. That is basically it.”
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