Pavlyuchenko Opens Account to Deepen Newcastle's Woes

A trip to Tyneside is currently proving more beneficial than a week at a health farm for England's football teams and the benefits may yet prove a watershed in Tottenham's season. Juande Ramos's side arrived "in crisis" last night but departed renascent, their troubles placed in firm perspective by a brush with a demoralized, disjointed and managerless Newcastle.

Featuring stellar performances from Jonathan Woodgate and Didier Zokora along with a first goal for the club from Roman Pavlyuchenko, this Carling Cup win suggested that Ramos may yet build a decent team but confirmed that Newcastle need a manager promptly.

By kick-off Terry Venables had been installed as the bookmakers' favorite to succeed Kevin Keegan. According to rumor the former England coach was poised to sign a short-term contract and serve as a "fireman" staving off the possibility of the team being sucked into a relegation battle before Mike Ashley, the beleaguered owner, finds a buyer. However Ashley and company are also believed to be talking to other candidates.

Perhaps that was the St James' Park board's excuse for the absence of a single one of their number in the directors' box last night. Not for the first time their collective no-show left Chris Hughton, Newcastle's caretaker manager, in less than splendid isolation.

Spurs may have endured a marginally worse beginning to the season but they shaded an underwhelming first half. With Zokora doing a decent job of screening his back four as a quasi-sweeper in front of that backline, Ramos' side gradually grew in confidence and conjured the two best chances of the opening period.

Even so it took a set-piece to create the first, Jamie O'Hara's corner prefacing a header from Pavlyuchenko, deployed as Tottenham's lone striker, which flew fractionally wide of Shay Given's goal.

For two teams supposed to be big on style and flair, there was a dearth of improvisation from open play and it took Aaron Lennon to provide a rare moment of genuine excitement. Having sashayed down the right, Lennon found himself tightly marked but still possessed sufficient vision and technique to test Given courtesy of a curling shot which swerved tantalizingly wide.

Heurelho Gomes was largely a spectator but the visiting goalkeeper did experience a possible reprieve when Geremi's seemingly goal-bound long-range free -kick was deflected off target by Claudio Cacapa.

If Damien Duff's career here has largely consisted of unremitting disappointment the winger has at least shown odd glimmers of the player he used to be this season and, early in the second half, his connection with Obafemi Martins's clever pass looked poised to create the opening goal. Woodgate, though, had very different ideas. Tottenham's former Newcastle center-half intervened at the vital moment, stretching out a boot and making an expert clearance.

Part of the reason why Michael Owen had been so quiet was Woodgate's intelligent shadowing of his one-time Real Madrid team-mate and he again extended himself to whisk the ball seamlessly off Owen's toecaps as he shaped to shoot.

Benefitting from considerably laxer marking, Pavlyuchenko headed Spurs into a 62nd-minute lead with his first goal for the club after Jermaine Jenas had picked out Lennon, whose cross was gratefully re-directed beyond Given by the Russian.

Before Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini had time to debate precisely why he was given so much space, the two home center-halves had conspired to double Newcastle's deficit. When Coloccini's unfortunate pass played Taylor into trouble, the England under-21 international was swiftly dispossessed by O'Hara, whose shot was too good for Given.

By the time Owen snatched a 90th-minute consolation from close range following Geremi's cross, Venables may well have resolved to steer well clear of the Tyne.