Keane devours hapless Wolves

Tottenham Hotspur 5 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2: If a drubbing constitutes a defeat in which the losing team concedes four or more goals, then Wolverhampton Wanderers could soon be setting records.

When Swindon Town were relegated from the Premiership in 1994 they were drubbed nine times. After two such results in a week Wolves' total now stands at five, and there are still three weeks until Christmas.

If the division's bottom side continue to perform like they did here, then the goals against will mount. Ponderous in defence and insipid in attack, their only presence came from a spiky midfield led by the ever-prickly Paul Ince. Yet it says everything about this match that with 15 minutes remaining Wolves were just as likely winners as Spurs.

"We didn't pass the ball well and were second best at times," said David Pleat. "Had we not got that second goal, we could have lost, no doubt about it. In those tight games, luck in front of goal is what counts."

It is not difficult to imagine that Pleat had Henri Camara in mind as he spoke. Wolves' Senegalese forward had a willing match and teed up Ince for the visitors' first goal, but with Wolves behind again to Freddie Kanoute's header, Dean Sturridge made his way past a sluggish Dean Richards and set up Camara six yards out.

An equaliser seemed highly plausible but Camara shot the ball clean over the bar. The game turned that moment and two minutes later Spurs scored their third.

This was Robbie Keane's second, as he met Paul Konchesky's deep cross with a smart volley that went back across Michael Oakes. Like most of Spurs' goals it was a pretty one, and came after at least a dozen passes had been exchanged in the opposition half. Not that Dave Jones saw it that way: "How'd he get that at the back?" exclaimed the Wolves manager to his bench, with added expletives.

Spurs needed only to find the barest patches of form in order to tear Wolves apart. Keane secured his hat-trick eight minutes later, tapping in to finish a move he had started, before Stephane Dalmat burst in to end the afternoon with a thrashing drive. "It was a real snorter," said Pleat.

Dalmat, like Konchesky - who is hoping to extend his loan spell at the club to the end of the season - came off the bench for Spurs in the second half just when Wolves were looking competitive.

"The way we were playing I would have to have changed something," said Pleat. "Fortunately Konchesky and Dalmat came on and gave us a bit more of whatever it was."

To have extra options makes a change from the injury-ridden days of Glenn Hoddle. Keane and Kanoute, for example, have started only five games together, but with nine goals between them there is every reason to believe a powerful partnership is possible, should they stay free from injury.

Of more concern to Pleat will be the unconvincing Richards and his partnership with Anthony Gardner that failed to dominate against Camara and Nathan Blake.

Wolves do not have Spurs' options, but neither are they that short on numbers, leaving two internationals in Joey Gudjonsson and Oleg Luzhny unused on the bench. The problem, Jones surmised, was that players would not "learn to cut out individual mistakes".

Guardian Service