Tottenham Hotspur 1 Blackburn Rovers 2

Last updated : 28 October 2007 By Footymad Previewer
Juande Ramos could only watch in despair as Tottenham crashed to yet another defeat against Blackburn at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham's new manager watched from the stands alongside chairman Daniel Levy and could not have been impressed with what he saw as his new club stay rooted in the bottom three of the table.

The former Sevilla coach knows he will need to weave all his magic if his side are to break into the top half of the table and must already be considering wholesale changes when the transfer window re-opens in January.

Following Martin Jol's sacking, Clive Allen was handed the task of trying to pick up the Spurs players and he thought the club's luck might be changing when Robbie Keane fired them into the lead with a penalty.

But Tottenham's woeful defence let them down once again and Benni McCarthy and a late strike from Christopher Samba ensured it was a miserable day for Ramos.

Despite the bizarre circumstances surrounding the departure of Jol, the home side started brightly and could have opened the scoring after just three minutes when Steed Malbranque's shot deflected just over the bar.

Blackburn also had a golden chance to break the deadlock on ten minutes when Roque Santa Cruz picked out David Bentley who turned Young-Pyo Lee inside the box but he fired his shot just past the post.

Rovers keeper Brad Friedel proved to be one of the heroes for Mark Hughes' side with a string of fine saves throughout the game.

His first came on 22 minutes when Malbranque flicked the ball into the path of Aaron Lennon whose shot was well-saved by the legs of the American keeper.

Friedel was at his best again just 60 seconds later when Lee's high ball into the box picked out Keane whose header was superbly beaten away by the Blackburn keeper.

The home side finally got their just rewards when Keane broke the deadlock from the penalty spot on 48 minutes.

Stephen Warnock brought down Lennon inside the box and the Tottenham skipper made no mistake firing the spot-kick into the corner of the net.

Tottenham should have doubled their lead on 53 minutes. Dimitar Berbatov played a superb flick into the path of Lee but he saw his close-range shot palmed away by Friedel.

The home side were made to pay when Blackburn snatched an equaliser on the hour. Bentley played the ball into McCarthy on the edge of the box and the South African's shot deflected off Michael Dawson and flew past Radek Cerny into the corner of the net.

Blackburn had Friedel to thank once again for coming away with an impressive victory at White Hart Lane. Keane's cross on 66 minutes picked out his strike partner Berbatov whose header produced another excellent save from Friedel diving away to his right.

Blackburn substitute Morten Gamst Pedersen was lucky to stay on the pitch on 80 minutes following a reckless challenge on Dawson but he escaped with just a yellow card.

And Tottenham's day went from bad to worse when Samba netted a stoppage-time winner. Santa Cruz laid the ball back to the Blackburn defender and he fired an unstoppable shot past Cerny into the corner of the net.