42mins The crucial moment of the match. Celestine Babayaro - playing his first game since February - laid the ball back to Steve Harper. 

Unfortunately the 'keeper hit a weak clearance that Simon Davies was able to block, the deflection falling for Jermaine Defoe to flick past the stranded Harper, who appealed in vain for an infringement - presumably offside. 1-0

Half time: Spurs 1 Newcastle 0

Full time: Spurs 1 Newcastle 0
 

Souness said:

"We think Charles has a chance of being a player - we like him.

"I think we were better when we brought on Charles and Darren Ambrose in the second half.

"It allowed Jermaine Jenas to go back into his preferred role in central midfield, and Charles gave us some action down the left-hand side.

"There wasn't a great deal in the game. We came here knowing Tottenham would have to come after us, but our game plan was working until we conceded a very poor goal.

"We looked better in the second half after we made our substitutions, but we're disappointed that we lost the game because we'd weathered what storm there was and maybe they were there for the taking.

"The idea was to give Alan an hour against Spurs, and then take him off. But he got a dead leg in the first half. And next week is so important to us that we decided to take him off at half-time.

"I don't know about Shay. He didn't play against Spurs because of a hip injury, which he had prior to the last international get-together.

Unfortunately, it seems to have recurred. It seemed to have cleared up, but now it has come back.

"Kieron (Dyer) is a doubt for us on Thursday. We'll have to see if his hamstring injury clears up.''

Steve Harper added:

"If I hadn't a poor clearance then we wouldn't have lost the game. When you don't play for a while it makes you doubly determined to do well, so when something like this happens then it's devastating.

"It wasn't an awkward ball or a bouncing one, but instead of putting it in the stand I've tried to keep the ball in play. With hindsight I would have put the ball in Row Z, but I scuffed it and if that didn't happen then we don't lose the game.

"I'm devastated. When that happens you just want to crawl into a hole, and the fact the game finished 1-0 makes it even more of a killer blow.

"Had we got to half-time at 0-0 then we would have had a good chance to go on and try and win the game, but instead we go in a goal down and it knocked the stuffing out of us.

"It was one of those games where a mistake was going to decide the game and unfortunately it was mine. Robbo's got away with his mistake, but I haven't.

"I enjoyed the start of the game, but goalkeepers are judged on how many mistakes they make, and unfortunately I've made one in this match."

Alan Shearer told the Chronicle:

"I should be all right for Thursday night.

"I got the dead leg early on and I wasn't 100% from that point so, with the games on Thursday and Sunday in mind, it was wise to take me off.

"We didn't play well - it wasn't a good performance. We had chances. Shola Ameobi had a chance with a header and James Milner had a big chance.

"We might have scraped a draw but we didn't do enough to win the game."
 

It's big-hearted of Steve Harper to take all the blame, but like the incident that dominated the Villa game, one regrettable moment here at White Hart Lane doesn't tell the full, shabby story of the afternoon.

Alan Shearer may have departed from the field with a dead leg, but it was open to question what parts of Robert, Butt and others had ceased to function.

Ameobi is exempt from the criticism (for once) as he's playing on with an injury that isn't improving - in stark contrast to another striker, whose only expending of energy in a football sense lately has been playing FIFA Soccer 2005....    

At the risk of appearing facile, without Bowyer we did lack ermmm...fight in midfield, with Butt again an uninvolved passenger. Whether we can expect more of him on Sunday against his former employer is a question we shouldn't have to be posing.  

And for Robert especially, the contrast with a game he played against Spurs on Tyneside less than 18 months ago was immense. 

That day he scored twice, laid on two more and tormented Spurs. 

Today he was lax, lazy and outshone by N'Zogbia, who at least made an attempt at doing what he's paid to do.

When pivotal moments happen to us, the the man from Reunion Island is invariably on the end of them - or in at the start. 

But here it just didn't happen for him and almost inevitably that meant that we were lacking as an attacking presence - worrying, given that Robert could be the single point of inspiration for us next weekend, unless Shearer finally perfects the art of crossing to himself....       

Of course this was the equivalent of a phoney war - with only the booing of Carr to disturb the almost tranquil air. Spurs weren't much better than us and are still chasing Europe via the league - a strategy we've never really looked like adopting all season.

It's human nature I suppose - and nowt new for us. After all, our 1997/98 semi win over the Blades coming on the back of a seven game winless run in the league. 

And the following year we played out the blandest of draws against Spurs before beating them in the semi - the Premiership game being remarkable chiefly for a dive to win a spot kick and consequent booing by toon fans of.....Carr.

It's evident to all that salvation lies in the Alvalade and Millennium stadia - when our big game hunters get the chance to strut their stuff in anger, proving how clever they are by turning form and inspiration on and off like a tap. We hope. 

Summing up this game was ever bit as drab, disappointing and as had been expected before leaving Tyneside on the Sunday morning. I think Sir Bobby called it keeping our powder dry - and at White Hart Lane it was bloody well hidden.

But it's now been thankfully consigned to the dustbin of club history and we can look forward again to a pair of opportunities in quick succession for us to either add to our collection of red letter days, or self-combust in our own inimitable style.  

If we continue to progress in the cups though, the awfulness that awaits us in the remaining seven league games is perhaps best not dwelt on.  

Quite simply we have to be positive regardless of the squad's form, fitness, availability, attitude, domestics, whatever. We're that bloody desperate. 

We can do no better than finish by recycling one of our old match reports, written after a 1-0 loss in North London, four days before a massive European tie: 

"We can only hope that this forgettable misadventure was as a result of keeping our powder dry for the trip to....."

That missing word? Rotterdam - and the greatest European away night of most people's supporting lives. So far. One game at a time eh? We've already forgotten about this one.

Biffa

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