Blackburn feel Keane sense of injustice

SOCCER/Tottenham Hotspur 3 Blackburn Rovers 2: Fourth place in the Premiership has come to look like the greatest prize in the realm. It is certainly the most hotly contested honour the Premiership has to offer. The prospect of qualification for the Champions League inspires and unnerves teams in equal measure.

Spurs had a 2-0 lead through Robbie Keane's goals, with refereeing decisions assisting in each case, then let a dynamic Blackburn pull level and won the game all over again through Mido. The result was so unjust as to be comic, although the joke was lost on highly-impressive Blackburn.

Even if the league table shows Spurs consolidating in fourth, the real effect of this contest was to deepen the uncertainty over the outcome of this season. When a captain and stalwart such as Ledley King can be so discomposed by Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Craig Bellamy, then it is clear the White Hart Lane squad will not bring much authority to bear in the campaign to achieve their ambitions. No one else, however, can be counted on to display much poise either.

Blackburn's miseries on the road continue. They have lost nine away fixtures and a finger has to be run all the way down the table to Newcastle United in 11th place to find the nearest club with as bad a record. Michael Gray clipped the top of the crossbar with a header in the 90th minute, but Mark Hughes will know the sort of commanding play his team produced to dominate the second half will go unrewarded if all that effort is not underpinned by sound defending.

His first reaction, however, will be to bemoan injustice. With six minutes left the Spurs full-back, Paul Stalteri, armed a dropping ball away, yet no penalty was awarded by Howard Webb. As fourth official on Saturday, Webb had needed to interpose himself between Bryan Robson and Jose Mourinho; he was mistaken if he supposed his shift at the centre of controversy was over when he left The Hawthorns.

The officials inadvertently rallied round to complete a week of blessings for Keane. The striker's goals followed hard on his ascension to the captaincy of the Republic of Ireland and on his agreement of a new contract that ties him to Spurs until 2010. He radiated talent and nimble vitality in this contest.

Though it was a myopic decision by assistant referee Darren Cann to award a throw-in to Spurs when Mido had actually applied the final touch, that should not detract from Keane's virtuosity in the ninth minute. Flicking the ball over Robbie Savage, he then turned away from Andy Todd before squeezing his finish past Brad Friedel.

Three minutes from the interval Spurs may have been wronged when Ryan Nelsen seemed to handle inside the box and only had to endure the award of a free-kick outside it. Nonetheless, punishment ensued for Blackburn. Friedel pushed out Mido's free-kick on to the right hand of Keane, and with the ball thus put under his control the striker scored easily.

In the 44th minute, Spurs omitted to make full use of their good fortune. King abandoned the centre of the defence to cover on the left but was unable to stop Bellamy from hitting a searching cross. Michael Dawson seemed bemused his centre-half partner had abandoned him and Sinama-Pongolle recorded his first goal for Blackburn with a header.

Hughes's side may have lost the match but they never lost confidence. Spurs were outplayed in the second half, with Paul Robinson forced to excel by tipping over a David Bentley free-kick in the 63rd minute. Even so, four minutes later the head of an off-balance King nudged the ball on to Sinama-Pongolle. Bellamy drilled in the equaliser from the cut-back.

"We were 2-0 down to incidents out of our control," Hughes said. "We got back to 2-2 and from that point I thought we would have gone on. It was a magnificent performance in the second half. We were camped in their half and created chances.Spurs will view the result as quite fortunate."

In the 70th minute, though, Spurs had enough focus to expose a weakness in the Blackburn ranks. Keane worked a pass to the right and substitute Aaron Lennon easily outpaced Gray before directing the low cross which Mido forced into the net.

Martin Jol is at least a man of means where attacking talent is concerned. Jermain Defoe, for instance, did not even get on the pitch, although he had removed his tracksuit and stood ready before the manager evidently concluded that the situation was too delicate to make an alteration.