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Laursen's strike sinks Spurs
02/01/2008 12:24 - (SA)
Birmingham - Aston Villa defender Martin Laursen punished sloppy Spurs as Martin O'Neill's side snatched a dramatic 2-1 win on Tuesday.
Jermain Defoe looked to have rescued a point for Spurs late on when he cancelled out Olof Mellberg's opener. But Juande Ramos's team had only themselves to blame as Laursen headed the winner with five minutes to play at Villa Park.
Their shaky defence had already been caught out from a set-piece once when Mellberg scored and they went to sleep again to gift Laursen the decisive goal.
Ramos will be furious with two such elementary errors and the Spanish coach will make a defender his main target now the transfer window is open.
Villa are unbeaten in five matches after their second successive victory and remain firmly in the hunt for a place in the Uefa Cup.
O'Neill saluted Villa's determination and singled out Laursen for special praise.
"In the first half we dominated but I knew Tottenham wouldn't allow that to continue," he said. "We've had some tough games recently and I thought our own energy might drop but we have a fantastic desire in the side.
"No-one epitomises that better than Martin Laursen. He was incredible, absolutely incredible. He's come up and scored the winning goal but his whole performance was top-drawer."
Gus Poyet, Ramos's assistant, made no attempt to hide his anger at Tottenham's defending. "We conceded two goals from set-pieces again. As soon as it is a corner or a free-kick out wide it is panic."
Spurs had won 6-4 against Reading in their last match but Ramos still made four changes, with Robbie Keane and Ledley King missing out.
Luke Moore was starting for the first time since November as a replacement for injured Norway striker John Carew.
But he hardly made a strong case to feature on a more regular basis when he dragged a shot wide early on after good work by Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Villa finally made the breakthrough in the 41st minute as the Spurs defence gifted yet another soft goal.
Ramos made tightening up the back four his first priority after arriving from Sevilla but evidence of improvement is thin on the ground so far.
Michael Dawson and Kevin-Prince Boateng made a hash of marking Mellberg as Young whipped in a free-kick, giving the Swedish defender room to plant his header past Paul Robinson.
Ramos's side had scored 11 goals in their last two games but there were no signs of the goal-glut continuing here.
Dimitar Berbatov seemed destined to leave Spurs during the transfer window judging by his agent's recent revelations. But if Chelsea or any of his other potential suitors were watching they wouldn't have been impressed when he shot straight at Scott Carson just before the break.
Ramos sent on Tom Huddlestone at half-time and the midfielder made his presence felt with a long-range effort.
Moore missed another glorious chance, falling backwards and slicing a shot wide from Stiliyan Petrov's cross.
Keane appealed for a penalty when he tumbled under Wilfred Bouma's challenge but referee Steve Tanner waved away his protests.
Spurs were turning up the heat on Villa and levelled in the 79th minute.
Dawson's chip was headed out by Gareth Barry but it struck Berbatov and rebounded towards Defoe, who hooked an acrobatic shot past Carson.
But there was a sting in the tail for Spurs. Once again their marking was poor as Jamie O'Hara lost Laursen at a corner and the defender headed home to snatch the points.
- AFP
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