Defoe hits the mark to see off Bolton

14 April 2012

(after extra time - 2-2 at 90 minutes)

This time, there was no mistaking the tribute to Bill Nicholson.

Words didn't come easy to Jacques Santini on Saturday but last night his Tottenham side did their talking on the field, delivering the perfect riposte to those who said the great entertainers of English football had become boring under his care.

Bill Nick would have loved a ferocious cup-tie at the Reebok Stadium in which Spurs went through to the last 16 of the Carling Cup by edging a seven-goal thriller which set the pulses racing.

Jermain Defoe scored for the first time since he netted for Spurs in their 6-0 demolition of Oldham in the second round last month. Goran Bunjevcevic popped up with five minutes to go to make it 2-2 and take the match into extra-time and then Defoe scored again in extra-time to seal a famous 4-3 victory.

Spurs have scored six times in 10 Premiership games but they can't fail in front of goal in this competition. They return to the North-West to face Burnley in the next round and Brown believes it's a case of "once a cup side, always a cup side".

He said: "It's the tradition of the club to do well in cup competitions and you could tell the magic is still there. The support was incredible. When we scored, we looked up at Spurs fans filling the top tier and the bottom tier of the stand. We wanted to win it for them."

Brown replaced Simon Davies in the 78th minute with Spurs still trailing 2-1 and became the hero when he burst forward to head Michael Carrick's freekick in the first period of extra-time to take the score to 3-2.

Spurs were always in front after that with Defoe scoring his second after 114 minutes before Les Ferdinand ensured an anxious final 15 minutes. Bolton sub Khalilou Fadiga collapsed while warming up before kick-off and the incident clearly affected both sets of players in the opening half-hour until Ledley King inadvertently diverted a free-kick from Fernando Hierro into his own net.

Spurs, giving Swiss teenager Reto Ziegler his full debut, levelled a minute before half-time when Pedro Mendes fed Defoe and the striker turned sharply to fire past Kevin Poole.

Bunjevcevic was penalised for tugging Henrik Pedersen's shirt after 75 minutes and Jay Jay Okocha rammed the penalty past Kasey Keller to make it 2-1. But the defender made amends six minutes from time when he slid in to finish a Robbie Keane corner.

Extra-time was even more dramatic. Five minutes after the restart, Carrick and Brown combined brilliantly, with the latter putting Spurs ahead for the first time. Defoe then made it 4-2 when Keane charged down a clearance from Nicky Hunt. But Ferdinand, who spent six seasons at Spurs, headed Bolton back into the game in the last seconds before the turnaround in extra-time.

Spurs could have scored three more in the final 10 minutes but Defoe and Keane were both selfish and elected to shoot instead of passing to each other. And at the other end, Keller pulled off a reflex stop to prevent Ferdinand from taking the game into penalties.

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Defoe hits the mark to see off Bolton

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