Carlisle 0 Tottenham 3:GOALS FROM Jan Vertonghen, Andros Townsend and Gylfi Sigurdsson ensured Tottenham's safe passage into the fourth round with victory at League One side Carlisle last night.

Spurs took the lead in the 37th minute when Vertonghen headed in Sigurdsson’s set-piece delivery, the Belgian registering his first goal for the club.

Townsend then doubled the advantage with a decent solo effort eight minutes after the restart before Sigurdsson, also opening his account for the visitors, wrapped the scoring up by nodding in Kyle Walker’s cross a minute from time.

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas would have been relieved to avoid a potential banana skin at Brunton Park as his team – showing eight changes from the 2-1 Premier League win over QPR on Sunday. Overall, it seems the pressure on the manager is continuing to ease, with this result meaning that ahead of Saturday’s league match at Manchester United, the London outfit are undefeated in the six games since their loss to Newcastle on the opening day of the top-flight campaign, and have won three of their last four in all competitions.

CARLISLE: Gillespie, Simek, Livesey, Murphy, Chantler, McGovern (Symington 61), Thirlwell (Noble 61), Berrett, Robson, Higginbotham (Beck 60), Cadamarteri. Subs not used: Collin, Madden, Edwards, Potts.

TOTTENHAM: Cudicini, Smith, Dawson, Caulker, Vertonghen (Walker 65), Townsend, Huddlestone, Sigurdsson, Falque, Dempsey (Obika 75), Mason (Carroll 70). Subs not used: Gomes, Lennon, Defoe, Sandro.

Referee: K Friend (Leicestershire).