Cole fires Tottenham into drop zone

Tottenham - 0 Charlton Ath - 1 Tottenham toiled but to no avail. Exactly halfway through the season and, to their immense frustration, Spurs are in the bottom three of the Premiership.For all their overwhelming first-half superiority, there was no great security when defending set-pieces and Carlton Cole capitalised for the visitors with the decisive blow.

Tottenham are low on confidence and, with each passing game, a little more of it seems to ebb away from their players.

"We can see the red light and we are all nervous," said Spurs' acting manager David Pleat. "We are on a cruel run and we've got to live with it and fight our way out of it."

Pleat, though, was optimistic for the outcome of that fight.

"I can't change the result - but if I keep getting the same effort from those players the club and the new manager who comes in will have no problems," Pleat predicted.

"I'm not low; I'm not low at all. We can see the danger, and every club is entitled to be nervous if they're in that position.

"But there are 19 games to go, and it's up to us. If we continue like we played today we'll be okay."

The result was met with castigation for the board from a small, vocal group of home fans who gathered to vent spleen outside the directors' entrance at the final whistle.

It is not fair to criticise the board of the summer's third highest-spending club, though the decision earlier this month to retain Pleat until the end of the season may already be regretted by the chairman Daniel Levy.

One man who could surely improve on Pleat's recent record of eight defeats from 10 outings is Charlton's manager Alan Curbishley, who traded his usual tracksuit for a tailored suit yesterday. He denied, however, that it was the dress code for an interview with the Tottenham board.

Though Charlton had enjoyed only one win in their last six outings, the frustrations of Spurs's forwards and fans might have been expected. Their last home win against Charlton was in 1990.

The visitors entered this fixture only 48 hours after an admirable 4-2 derby win over Chelsea and there was early evidence that this had sapped strength from their legs.

"We've had some significant results here (in the past), but in that first half we seemed to have left a lot at The Valley," said Curbishley.

"That was a monumental effort against Chelsea and we looked very leggy."

From that win Curbishley swapped Graham Stuart for the fleet-footed Paul Konchesky, back from a loan spell at Spurs, and reintroduced Mark Fish to command the defence. "That's the closest I ever get to rotation," said Charlton's manager.

But the changes could not prevent the Tottenham midfield doing all they could to accelerate the frantic early pace. John Jackson, playing in his home debut for Spurs, and Rohan Ricketts used their electric pace to escape the Charlton full-backs, producing crosses that occupied the defenders inside.

From the right Ricketts delivered one centre that Frederic Kanoute met with a firm header, forcing acrobatics from Dean Kiely. Another was sent over the bar by Gustavo Poyet's overhead kick.

Spurs's strikers also found ways to split Charlton's defence. A neat one-two between Robbie Keane and Kanoute put the Irish striker one-on-one with Kiely, though his shot was thwarted. Another Keane effort from 20 yards was also scrambled away.

But Charlton were dangerous on the break and Paolo Di Canio held off Tottenham's debutant left-back Stephen Kelly before lifting a high through-ball for Jonatan Johansson. The Icelandic player raced clear but thumped his shot against the chest of Kasey Keller before sending the rebound over the prone goalkeeper's unguarded net.

Hustled and muscled off the ball in the first period, Charlton re-emerged with greater purpose. Jason Euell's shot shortly after the interval was diverted off its path to goal only when Matt Holland failed to duck it.

Di Canio's pinpoint deliveries from set-pieces were unnerving Keller. One Holland header from a corner was heading over but the American nudged it further to give Di Canio another go from the corner flag.

His ball swung away from Keller across the six-yard box and Cole met it with a forceful header that crashed in off the underside of the bar.

"It's been a super Christmas, and we're delighted to be fourth," said Curbishley. "We put in a monumental effort (in St Stephen's Day's 4-2 win) against Chelsea and we couldn't get going in the first half (yesterday). But we got stronger in the second half, and I thought we would be get two or three goals in the end.

"We've been in these positions before," he added. "Not so lofty I suppose but, when we've ventured into the top six on a few occasions, we've tailed off in the last couple of years, so we'll see."