There was no fairytale start to manager Harry Redknapp's second reign at struggling Portsmouth, two goals in the final five minutes from Tottenham's Ahmed Mido and Jermaine Defoe securing the London club a 3-1 win on Monday.
Portsmouth were under the cosh for most of the match but a stunning speculative volley by Tresor Lomana Lua Lua handed the south coast club an early lead before Spurs equalized after the break through captain Ledley King.
Mido, with a penalty, and Defoe -- a former Redknapp protege at West Ham -- delivered the hammer blows to consign Portsmouth to a fifth successive loss and leave them second from bottom in the Premiership.
PHOTO: EPA
"It was a scandalous decision and it cost us the game. The players didn't deserve that because their attitude was first class," Redknapp said of the controversial penalty.
"If we work as hard as that, we've got a chance of staying up, but we need a win against West Brom on Saturday," he said.
It was a third successive victory for Tottenham that sees them sitting pretty in fourth place in the table, a point below Manchester United and Liverpool, who both have a game in hand.
PHOTO: AP
"They defended well, but we deserved to win," Tottenham coach Martin Jol said.
Man-of-the-match Edgar Davids said the Spurs side had never doubted their ability to claw back Lua Lua's thunderbolt.
"We had to be aware of the counter-attack ... but we knew what we had to do," the Dutch international said.
"We were playing well and we were 1-0 down but we knew the goals would come," he said.
Spurs striker Robbie Keane had the first opportunity of the game after two minutes, finding himself alone on goal but unable to muster anything more than a weak shot straight at goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown.
A nice lay-off from Dutchman Davids allowed Mido a shot on target after 11 minutes, but the Egyptian's effort also went the way of the keeper's arms.
But with the impressive Jermaine Jenas marhsalling the Spurs midfield, Keane was again played through into the penalty box five minutes later, but Ashdown did well to palm away the Irishman's shot.
Against the run of play, Lua Lua scored his first goal since September, volleying home a speculative lobbed pass from Gary O'Neil beyond the reach of Spurs' stationary goalkeeper Paul Robinson from 30m.
The DR Congo international celebrated his third goal of the season and Portsmouth's first in more than 400 minutes of Premiership football with an impressive back-flipping gymnastic display in front of the hushed home fans.
Mido went close on the stoke of half-time but referee Uriah Rennie whistled for a high boot and Spurs were left rueing a first period during which they dominated possession but were unable to bury a hatful of chances on goal.
Spurs opened the second-half as they finished the first, the ever-dangerous Davids blasting a shot just wide and Ashdown pressed into service to punch away a cross from Mido's reaches.
King finally made the pressure pay in the 57th minute, the captain losing his marker Linvoy Primus and rising high to head home from a Michael Carrick corner.
Robinson came up with a fine one-handed save a the other end within a minute, the England keeper palming away a hard shot from Matthew Taylor.
Mido had another clear chance on goal 10 minutes later, but he headed a pinpoint cross from Wayne Routledge over the crossbar.
With 20 minutes to play, the game became a tough-tackling affair as Portsmouth tried to shut down Spurs in attack.
Andy Reid made an instant impact when he came on as a replacement for Routledge, himself a replacement, driving a free-kick into the wall.
The referee harshly ruled it came off O'Neil's arm and pointed to the penalty spot. Mido made no mistake although Ashdown dived the right way.
Defoe rubbed salt into the wounds, beating two defenders easily to hit a shot under Ashdown's body and leave Redknapp and his Portsmouth side with a mountain to climb to avoid relegation from the Premiership.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was