Crouch came in for severe criticism for the red card he picked up for two rash challenges in the early stages of Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final clash at the Bernabeu. He went a long way to answering those critics on Saturday by scoring two headers to put Spurs on their way to a 3-2 victory over Stoke.
The striker admitted that he was "gutted" to be missing out on Wednesday's second leg, and conceded that he had never felt lower during his 13-year career than following his red card, and he said: "That's as low as I've felt just because of the sheer importance of the match."
He added: "It was the quarter-final of the Champions League at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid. With all those things put together, it was very disappointing.
"I watched the game in one of the referee's rooms with Rafa(van der Vaart), who came off at half-time. It was really frustrating. With each goal that went in, it felt like I had cost the team."
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp took Crouch aside at the club's Chigwell base and told him to forget the incident, despite its costly consequences.
The move seemed to work as he doubled his league tally to four goals against a physical Stoke team. The former Liverpool man nodded home a Roman Pavlyuchenko short corner for his first before he met Tom Huddlestone's long cross with a bullet header that beat Asmir Begovic for his second.
Crouch revealed that he was so desperate to make up for his red card that he almost had to resort to begging Redknapp to start him on Saturday.
"I was dying to play," he said. "I was thinking of saying (to Redknapp), 'please, please, play me' to try and make amends and help get three points.
"I told myself before the game, 'don't do anything stupid' and I scored a couple of goals so thankfully it worked well."
Source: PA
Source: PA