Spurs fans vent anger

But he cleverly headed home a corner in the 69th minute and with results elsewhere that was enough to earn fourth place in the table.

Spurs, despite throwing men forward in desperation, had little joy from a defence that included their old boy Chris Perry. In the end Charlton would have won by a bigger margin if Cole had managed to convert a pinpoint Parker cross.

Spurs have injuries but so have Charlton and while Pleat was missing Jamie Redknapp, Darren Anderton, Stephane Dalmat, Simon Davies and Christian Ziege, Curbishley was minus Shaun Bartlett, Richard Rufus, Luke Young, Gary Rowett, Kevin Lisbie and Claus Jensen.

Curbishley said: "I've only got 17 players at the moment and I felt some of them needed a rest after what they did against Chelsea.

"I put Graham Stuart and Jonathan Fortune on the bench and they weren't very happy. But I felt I had to freshen it up. It's as close as I've come to a rotation system.

"We left our legs at The Valley in the first half but as the game went on we got stronger and stronger."

Pleat knows the battle for survival is now on but remained upbeat. He said: "I can't change the result - but if I keep getting the same effort from those players, the club and the new manager will have no problems.

"I'm not low at all. We can see the danger and every club is entitled to be nervous if they're in that position.

"I thought it was a terrific effort and we could have been four goals up in the first half, no question. I thought it was a sad result in the end because the lads deserved more."

Freddie Kanoute, for one, does not believe he will be relegated from the Premiership for the second successive season.

Perhaps that's why he has decided Spurs can do without his talents while he plays for Mali in the African Nations Cup in Tunisia. Kanoute was in the West Ham squad that lost Premiership status last season but reckons Spurs are too good to go down.

Perhaps the France-born star can be forgiven a short memory, but that kind of statement was uttered about the Hammers 12 months ago.

Kanoute said: "It is bad when I look at the table and see us in the bottom three. I know this experience.

"But I don't think we will have many problems in the future because

"It is different to how it was at West Ham. With this team we know we can win but last season it was complicated with West Ham because we didn't think we could do that."

The fans, though, know Spurs could be heading for the Nationwide First Division and up to 50 of them staged a token protest after the end of this latest defeat - their fourth in succession in the Premiership.

Their verbal repertoire against chairman Daniel Levy included the often-repeated lines: "Levy's taking us on a Nationwide tour, a Nationwide tour", which was bellowed, rather than sung, to the tune of Yellow Submarine by The Beatles.

But while the chanting was in good humour, some of the confrontations with the players were far from harmonious and the ugly scenes only served to underline the growing frustration at White Hart Lane. There were minor clashes with stewards and police as the fans called for the resignations of Levy and Pleat.

They also rounded on a number of players as they left through the main gate. Robbie Keane and Kanoute felt the full force of their unhappiness before police stepped in and the players were allowed to leave.

Keane snapped back at fans: "What's your problem?" before leaving in a hurry while the same protesters told Kanoute just what they thought of his plan to play in the African Nations Cup next month.

It could all have been very different if Spurs had taken their chances in a promising first half.

With Stephen Carr suspended, Pleat handed a debut to youngster Stephen Kelly and continued with John Jackson on the left of midfield. Jackson produced some find crosses throughout and Spurs should have been in front at the break.

The impressive midfielder sent a volley flashing a yard wide while Robbie Keane and Kanoute combined well early on only for the Irishman to squander the chance with just goalkeeper Dean Kiely to beat.

Scott Parker then saved Charlton by clearing off the line from Gus Poyet and, apart from a stunning save by Kasey Keller to deny Jonatan Johansson, the visitors showed little appetite in attack before half-time.