Harry Kane kept his impressive goalscoring run going with a first-half hat-trick in Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-0 thrashing of Stoke City at White Hart Lane.
The England international scored all three of his goals inside the opening 37 minutes, making it three trebles already this calendar year and two in the space of a week.
It took 15 minutes for Tottenham to get up and running, as star man Kane made the most of the first half-chance that fell his way by putting his boot through the ball and picking out the far corner.
Jan Vertonghen sent one shot crashing back off the bar as his long wait for a goal went on, while Walker and Kane both came close to adding a second.
That key second goal did arrive soon after, though, and it was Kane who bagged it with another brilliantly-taken shot, sending the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box directly from a corner.
Five minutes later the hat-trick was complete when Kane put his foot through a free kick and, via a big deflection off former Spur Crouch, got the beating of Lee Grant for a third time.
Kane superbly flicked the ball past his opponent on the right-hand side and sent in a teasing cross for Dele Alli to slide home at the back post, making it the first time Tottenham have scored four first-half goals in a league game in five years.
Tottenham, also four-goal winners in the previous two meetings between these two sides, did see their result soured somewhat early in the second period when Toby Alderweireld hobbled down the tunnel with an injury setback.
In the end Kane’s first-half brilliance proved to be the difference, taking his tally to 13 goals in 11 outings and lifting Spurs back into second place in the table.
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