Peter Crouch has apologised to his Tottenham team-mates and manager after his needless red card in last night's 4-0 defeat by Real Madrid.
Spurs were 1-0 down in the Champions League quarter-final first leg when the England striker was dismissed after just 15 minutes following two bookings for lunging tackles.
Skipper Michael Dawson revealed that Crouch had said sorry to his team-mates at half-time in the Bernabeu.
"He [Crouch] was gutted," Dawson said. "He apologised to the lads but we went out there to give our all and it didn't go to plan. I didn't see the bookings, so I don't know if they were harsh. To have it happen so early on when you are playing a team like Real Madrid was disappointing."
The night started badly when Aaron Lennon was taken ill before kick-off, got worse when Crouch was sent off and ended in humiliation as former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice, with Angel di Maria netting a superb third and Cristiano Ronaldo completing the rout just before full time.
Madrid kept the shackles firmly on Gareth Bale and the rest of the Spurs attack that had scored 25 goals in the competition before last night.
William Gallas admitted the defeat was one of the toughest moments of his career. "It was the worst night I had in my life - 4-0," the defender said.
"It is like we could not have a reaction. We tried but it was so difficult because Real Madrid played very well.
"I am not surprised because I've played with Jose Mourinho [at Chelsea] but I did not think we would concede four."
Harry Redknapp admitted his side faced "an impossible task" after Crouch was sent off but Dawson believes Spurs can still reach the semi-finals and has called on his team-mates to pick themselves up for Saturday's game against Stoke.
"There is 90 minutes left of the tie. We will give it our all," he said.
