Two goals in one second half minute were not enough to steal the focus from referee Howard Webb after Tottenham’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland, while Stoke triumphed 3-2 over Birmingham in Tuesday night's other English Premier League match.
Rafael van der Vaart further endeared himself to the Spurs faithful with a 65th minute close-range goal before Asamoah Gyan levelled the English Premier League clash seconds later.
But it was the incident that preceded the two goals that provided the main talking point of Tuesday's match, when Webb waved away Tottenham's penalty claims after a clear foul on David Bentley in the 52nd minute.
Just over 10 minutes later, a searching Gareth Bale cross found substitute Peter Crouch, whose deft knock down dropped to van der Vaart to finished on the turn - although not without a suspicion of hand ball.
Tottenham had little chance to enjoy their lead as Sunderland drew level courtesy of Gyan, who capitalised on a defensive mix-up between Younes Kaboul and William Gallas.
There was still time for Webb to further irk both sets of fans with a series of contentious decisions, including his yellow carding of Lee Cattermole for his dangerous challenge that got the ball but also collected Modric.
Meanwhile, a Dean Whitehead goal at the death handed Stoke a 3-2 win over Birmingham City and ended the Potters' run of five straight defeats.
But they had to battle hard as Birmingham City managed to come back from two goals down and looked like snatching a draw before Whitehead's late intervention.
Stoke took a deserved lead two minutes before the break when Ricardo Fuller's shot deflected into the path of captain Robert Huth, who smashed under Foster and in from 10 yards.
Birmingham came out stronger in the second half and almost equalised before Stoke went two up when Fuller cut in from the right and curled a wonderful left-foot shot into the corner for his 100th goal in British football.
But Birmingham drew level with two goals in two minutes.First Stoke failed to clear their lines, and substitute Keith Fahey crashed a drive in from the edge of the box before a wonderful Larsson cross was then headed in from eight yards by Jerome.
Stoke had the final say though as Etherington's cross from the right ricocheted off two Birmingham defenders into the path of Whitehead, who bundled the ball home from close range.