Well that wasn't pretty. We sweated, slogged, struggled and eventually staggered across the finish line against a hard-working, but limited, Hull city side, earning a win that moves us five points from the relegation zone. A small chink of daylight in the race for Premiership safety.
There was little to take from the performance and at times we looked leakier than hat made out of a sieve but even when times are rosier, three points on the road are hard to come if you're a Tottenham supporter.
The game itself was an ugly affair, full of cynical, rather than nasty, fouls and long period bereft of joy or slick, passing football. With both sides struggling to string more than half a dozen passes together, this wasn't a game for the neutral or the purist.
In a game featuring over fifteen corners it is unsurprising that its defining moments came from inventive set-pieces or our failure to deal with crosses into the box. Hull really only threatened during these moments, aided by an uncharacteristically erratic performance by Carlo Cudicini.
At times our passing was simply atrocious. The back four were particularly guilty, especially on the flanks were Ekotto and Corluka either spent most of the first half either aimlessly pumping the ball forward or hacking the ball out of play.
It wasn't much better further forward, with the neat corner routine that saw Aaron Lennon be given the freedom of the KC Stadium to rifle in a shot from 18-yards the shining light in an otherwise turgid first half display from both sides.
After the break things didn't improve too much, although we did start quickly and with a renewed sense of purpose. Darren Bent rasped a shot into the hands of Matt Duke before Wilson Palacios knocked ex-Spur Anthony Gardner clean off his feet with a tremendous volley which looked destined for the bottom corner of the net.
There were other chances - Corluka rattled Duke's crossbar and Kamil Zayatte arrowed a header onto a post - but neither side looked capable winning the match before Jonathan Woodgate rose leapt into the nights sky and directed Assou-Ekotto's fine cross into the net before wheeling off into some kind of owl/comedy spectacles celebration.
Less comic for our Carling Cup hero was the clash which saw him have to leave the field minus half an arm full of blood. Expect those pictures to be all over the back pages tomorrow morning.
It might be overly harsh to concentrate on the more garish aspects of tonight's game, especially given that, before the match, we would have taken the three points every which way but loose. The players certainly huffed and puffed, even if they didn't manage to blow the house down.
Either way, the wolves are most certainly still at the door.
Player ratings:
Cudicini: 5 - A puzzlingly erratic display. Struggled to deal with the majority of the corners launched into the box and punched down instead of up before Hull equalised.
Corluka - 5 - Save from hitting the bar with a firm header, this will be one performance Charlie will want to forget. Poor distribution and little affect going forward.
King - 7 - Will probably never be the player he once was but deserves credit for the performance given how long he has spent on the sidelines recently.
Woodgate - 6 - Not one of his best. Looked shaky and suffered from the same wayward distribution as the rest of the back four. Took his goal wonderfully but that doesn't mask the fact that more is expected from him.
Assou-Ekotto - 6 - Once great cross doesn't make a game, but it certainly helped get us three points. Poor passing and erratic crossing. Very strange hair.
Aaron Lennon* - 7 - Lively throughout and took his goal very well. However, his cross let him down.
Jermaine Jenas - 6 - An improvement over his abject display against Arsenal, but only just.
Wilson Palacios - 6 - Never stopped running and hassling the opposition, but not quite as effective as against Arsenal. Constantly makes himself available for a pass.
Luka Modric - 6 - Drifted infield, meaning we effectively played three across the middle. Also drifted in and out of the game.
Robbie Keane - 5 - Again, worked hard but posed little to no threat to Matt Duke's goal.
Darren Bent - 5 - Ran the channels but, like Keane, had little impact on the game.
Subs:
Pavlyuchenko - 5 - Ran about to no effect.
Zokora - N/A - Not on the pitch long enough
Dawson - N/A - Ditto