More misery for Ramos as Hull stun Spurs

Hull inflicted more misery on beleaguered Tottenham boss Juande Ramos as Geovanni’s stunning strike clinched a 1-0 win at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Just a week after Hull shocked Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Phil Brown’s side inflicted an even more damaging defeat on north London’s other big guns.

Geovanni’s free-kick early in the first half condemned Tottenham to their fifth defeat in seven matches and made it their worst start to a league campaign for 96 years.

Ramos’s side remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table and the Spanish coach faces a major fight to hold onto his job. Unless there is an immediate upturn in results, Ramos could be on his way just a year after arriving from Sevilla.

In stark contrast to Tottenham’s woes Hull – playing in the top-flight for the first time in their 104-year history – will pinch themselves when they wake up and see they are third in the table.

Spurs looked wracked with nerves from the start and could have gone behind in the third minute when Jonathan Woodgate left Geovanni in space with just Heurelho Gomes to beat, only for the Brazilian to blast over.

He made amends five minutes later as Spurs fell behind in stunning fashion.

Geovanni has made a habit of scoring from long range during his time in England and it was no surprise to see him lining-up a 25-yard free-kick in the ninth minute.

His strike was perfect and raced over the wall into the top corner with Gomes rooted to the spot.

“You’re getting sacked in the morning,” chanted Hull’s fans as Ramos attempted to urge on his side from the touchline.

Spurs nearly snatched a fortunate equaliser in the 22nd minute when Gareth Bale’s swinging free-kick was touched onto the crossbar by Boaz Myhill.

Spurs’ troubles were compounded in the 34th minute when Ramos was forced to replace the limping Roman Pavlyuchenko with Darren Bent.

It could have been even worse for Ramos when former Spurs midfielder Dean Marney spun on a pass on the edge of the penalty area and crashed a thunderous shot against the foot of a post.

Marney threatened again moments later with a swirling effort that Gomes saved well.

Just before half-time Tottenham finally sparked into life and Woodgate’s snapshot cannoned off the bar.

Ramos threw on David Bentley after 55 minutes in place of Chris Gunter in a desperate attempt to inject some life into his struggling side.

They should have been level two minutes later. Luka Modric played in Bent but, with only Myhill to beat, he lifted his shot wide of the far post.

Marney could have sealed it for Hull after 74 minutes when he broke into space on the left, but with only Gomes to beat he struck his right-foot shot against the goalkeeper’s legs.

Modric should have rescued Ramos in the dying moments, only to hit his volley into the ground and over the bar from six yards.

Tottenham claimed they should have had a penalty when George Boateng appeared to bring down Frazier Campbell but referee Rob Styles waved away the appeals to leave Ramos deep in trouble.