Spurs slow to learn from past experience

Tottenham Hotspur 4 Leicester City 4Tottenham produced another extraordinary scoreline here yesterday, attacking and defending with a largesse that at once delighted and horrified their bewildered supporters. This time they shared eight goals. So in the past 19 days they have played four games that have produced 28 goals; they have scored 15, conceded 13 and won twice.

Spurs led 3-1 at half-time but still could not win at home against a struggling Leicester who have not won in 14 league and cup attempts.That Leicester were reduced to 10 men and their goalkeeper Ian Walker, one of four Spurs old boys in the side, had a stinker, also reflected badly on the home side. It needed Jermain Defoe to save them embarrassment with an 89th-minute equaliser, his second goal of the match.

Spurs had won five of their previous six league games and should be eighth in the table this morning. Instead, they shuffle up to 10th. For Leicester, meanwhile, one point was not enough for a side who started joint bottom with Leeds and the sending-off of James Scowcroft further hampers their already doubtful survival chances.

For Spurs supporters the match was uncomfortably redolent of their FA Cup replay defeat against Manchester City on February 4th. Then Spurs led 3-0 at half-time before losing 4-3 to 10 men.

Leicester's manager Micky Adams was furious about the sending-off of Scowcroft for his foul on Mauricio Taricco. He accused the Argentinian of making the most of the incident. The red card, though, seemed deserved.

Michael Brown started the goal rush in the sixth minute when he scored from a 30-yard free-kick. The ball bounced awkwardly in front of Walker but that hardly absolved him.

Leicester equalised three minutes later when Gary Doherty, under pressure from Paul Dickov, first missed his header and then, with a lunging attempt to clear the danger, pushed the ball past Kasey Keller.

It took Spurs four minutes to regain the lead. Defoe sprinted clear on the right, controlled a pass from Simon Davies and shot across Walker into the left corner.

Spurs appeared to have the game under control in the 28th minute when Robbie Keane put them 3-1 up with his eighth goal in nine games. Again Walker was at fault, handling Gerry Taggart's back-pass, and Johnnie Jackson's free-kick from 16 yards rebounded from the wall into the striker's path.

Six minutes into the second half Steffen Freund harried Jackson into a desperate back-pass and Les Ferdinand, another familiar face, latched on to the ball before beating Keller.

Leicester made it 3-3 23 minutes later with a header from Ben Thatcher, his first goal in 214 matches since 1995, and took the lead through the substitute Marcus Bent in the 79th before Defoe scored the last. It was the £7 million striker's fourth goal in three games for Spurs.