Tottenham bid to bounce back from League Cup misery

Tottenham will look to put the heartbreak of their penalty shoot-out defeat in the League Cup final behind them as they focus on Premier League survival against Middlesbrough at White Hart Lane Wednesday.

Spot kick failures by midfielders Jamie O’Hara and David Bentley gifted Manchester United the first major trophy of the season at Wembley on Sunday.

But Tottenham have little time to dwell on that defeat as concerns over their precarious league position and injuries to key players loom large going into a vital league showdown with resurgent ‘Boro.

Harry Redknapp’s side are just four places and two points above the drop zone and the Tottenham manager has injury concerns over Jonathan Woodgate, Ledley King and Michael Dawson.

“There’s injuries, there’s fatigue, we’ve spent all our resources,” Redknapp said. “If you’re Middlesbrough you must be sitting at home and enjoying every minute of this.”

On a more positve note, the former West Ham boss will be able to call on the services of Robbie Keane, Wilson Palacios, Pascal Chimbonda and Carlo Cudicini, who were all cup tied on Sunday.

The arrival of Redknapp as manager when Spurs were bottom of the league in October kickstarted a run of one defeat in seven league games.

However, the London club’s form has stuttered of late with only two wins in their last nine league games and exits from the FA Cup and UEFA Cup.

Despite that spell, a win against fellow relegation strugglers Middlesbrough would go a long way to securing top flight football at the Lane next season.

Striker Darren Bent urged his team to put Sunday’s disappointment behind them. “There were some broken guys in the dressing room afterwards,” he said.

“Now we’ve got another cup final on Wednesday. We know what we need to do in the league. Our form hasn’t been great but if we play like we did on Sunday we can beat anyone.”

Midfielder Jermaine Jenas echoed the striker’s sentiments. “You go through an abundance of emotions, but we have to pick ourselves up. We haven’t got time to dwell on this,” he said.

“We can take a lot out of it, there was a lot of courage and effort, and if we put that in from now until the end of the season then we’ll climb the league.

“We haven’t got time to think about it. We have a very important game on Wednesday that we have to focus on and make sure we are ready.”

In contrast, visiting manager Gareth Southgate will be on a high after guiding his team to confidence boosting victories against West Ham in the FA Cup and title contenders Liverpool in the league.

The Teesiders looked to be spiralling towards relegation after a winless streak of 14 league games.

Last weekend’s win over Liverpool ended that run and eased some pressure on under-fire Southgate, but Middlesbrough remain in the relegation zone, two points behind Wednesday’s opponents.

The former Englad centre-back demanded his team continue their mini-revival.

“The cup win against West Ham worked well for us because it brought the belief back,” he said.

“They could hardly have done any better than they did on Saturday because we fully deserved the three points,” he added.

“Now we have to build on this. The confidence has flooded back, and we have to take full advantage by going to Tottenham and getting a result.”