Southgate gets tough as Defoe gets connected

Middlesbrough 1 Tottenham 1:It is suddenly fashionable to talk about "getting someone", as in being able to understand their raison d'etre and, perhaps, establishing a connection with them. Unfortunately Jermain Defoe and Martin Jol seemed increasingly incapable of "getting" each other in recent months and the Tottenham Hotspur striker, recalled to the first XI here, could not disguise his delight at the Dutchman's replacement by the Spaniard Juande Ramos.

"Maybe I've been held back in the last year but the new manager speaks to me, which is important; he lets me know where I stand," explained Defoe, who played for 58 minutes before making way for Robbie Keane.

Tottenham's fourth-choice striker this season, Defoe's inclusion came as a shock to Gareth Southgate, Middlesbrough's manager admitting that he was "surprised" to see Ramos mark his first Premier League game by starting with Dimitar Berbatov and Keane on the bench.

Yet with Kevin-Prince Boateng, an €8.6m summer signing from Hertha Berlin reputedly unwanted by Jol, making an initially promising league debut, there were strong indications that the former Sevilla manager may well have listened attentively to any advice on selection offered by Damien Comolli, Tottenham's influential director of football and Jol's bete noire.

Darren Bent, another striker apparently not fancied by Jol, gave Ramos's team the lead on Teesside. When Steed Malbranque used the outside of his right foot to clip a clever pass to Bent, the €23.7 million forward cut inside Chris Riggott before squeezing a shot just inside Mark Schwarzer's near post.

Southgate's side were duly booed off at half-time but, heartened by a recent text message from John Gregory, Boro's manager inspired a revival. As manager and captain of Aston Villa, Gregory and Southgate did not always entirely "get each other" but the text read: "Tough times don't last. Tough people do."

Suitably impressed, Southgate had those words writ large on his players' noticeboard last week and reiterated that message during the interval. Luke Young rose to the challenge in the most unlikely of fashions, the right back, and former Spurs player, running on to a Gary O'Neil pass and saw his right-foot shot arc into the top corner from 25 yards.