Senior Tottenham Hotspur officials have been uneasy about Harry Redknapp’s public raging about the players’ deficiencies, but his approach appeared to pay off last night when his team overwhelmed Stoke City with three goals in the opening half-hour at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham’s first win since early December moved them into thirteenth place in the Barclays Premier League, but justified misgivings about their shortcomings remain after a mistake led to James Beattie reducing the deficit in the second half. Even so, the victory banished the memory of Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat away to Stoke in October, which left them bottom of the table, five points adrift of safety, and led to the dismissal of Juande Ramos as head coach six days later.

Tottenham assumed control in the early stages last night, with Redknapp acclaiming the performance of Luka Modric, who was allowed the space to wreak havoc behind his forwards. Redknapp has so far been unable to find the right blend of midfield players and, without an obvious ball-winner, he selected an attacking midfield.

In the opening moments, Modric, the Croatia midfield player, cleverly jinked past two defenders but could not wrap his foot around the ball to curl it into the corner. He shaped the play, rode tackles and created the third goal when his cross, from a short corner, was headed in by Michael Dawson.

“Modric ran the game against a strong physical team,” Redknapp said. “He has a massive heart and is brave as a lion. We have got to keep getting him the ball as he can make things happen. He is fantastic.”

Redknapp will have to drop one of his midfield players to make room for Wilson Palacios, who was suspended last night, in his side against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday. That may not be difficult, with Aaron Lennon picking up a groin injury and David Bentley earning a fifth yellow card of the season, for a lunge on Matthew Etherington, that will rule him out of the derby match against Arsenal a week on Sunday. Bentley looked as comfortable and threatening on the right flank as he has since arriving at the club.

Darren Bent’s absence was blamed on a groin injury, but the forward appears to have little future at the club after being left unhappy by Redknapp’s public criticism. Tottenham have offered Fred, the Brazil forward valued by Lyons at £4.5 million, a contract, but he failed to show up for talks yesterday. “I wouldn’t bet on him coming here tomorrow,” Redknapp said.

Tottenham’s opening goal stemmed from Stoke’s naive defending. Jermain Defoe laid the ball off to the advancing Lennon, who, as Andy Wilkinson stood off, skipped past him and put the ball through the legs of Thomas Sorensen. Four players combined when Roman Pavlyuchenko’s subtle slide-pass found Defoe running into space and firing in the second goal.

Stoke were given a lifeline when a loose pass by Dawson and Etherington’s chip allowed Beattie to run through, control the ball and slide it past Carlo Cudicini, with Benoît Assou-Ekotto caught out of position. As the match petered out, Lennon’s drive was blocked and the winger’s appeal for a penalty, when bundled over by Ryan Shawcross, was waved away by Mike Riley, the referee.

Stoke have built their campaign on honest endeavour and aggression, but Tony Pulis, their manager, was angry about their uncharacteristically slapdash defending. The match might, have taken on a different complexion, however, had Beattie’s glancing header in the opening minutes not been cleared off the line by Assou-Ekotto.

“We were bloody awful, poor and inept, and lost the game in the opening 25 minutes,” Pulis said. “There have not been many times when I could have accused them of not being at it, but today was one. We had no edge. I wanted to see Harry Redknapp twitch with another late goal tonight.”

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): C Cudicini - V Corluka, M Dawson, J Woodgate, B Assou-Ekotto - D Bentley, D Zokora, L Modric, A Lennon (sub: T Huddlestone, 90min) - J Defoe, R Pavlyuchenko (sub: F Campbell, 90). Substitutes not used: B Alnwick, G Bale, Giovani Dos Santos, A Taarabt, R Rocha. Booked: Bentley, Woodgate.

Stoke City (4-4-2): T Sorensen - A Wilkinson (sub: A Griffin, 46), R Shawcross, Abdoulaye Faye (sub: I Sonko, 46), D Higginbotham - R Delap, G Whelan, Amdy Faye (sub: R Fuller, 48), M Etherington - R Cresswell, J Beattie. Substitutes not used: S Simonsen, L Lawrence, D Kitson, D Pugh. Booked: Higginbotham, Cresswell, Whelan.

Referee: M Riley.