Magical Keane grabs hat-trick

Tottenham Hotspur 4 Everton 3

Glenn Hoddle’s side trailed to debutant Brian McBride’s opening goal for the Toffees, but Gus Poyet levelled before Keane took over the show to win the match for his side despite Everton equalisers from Steve Watson and Tomasz Radzinski.

Neither team really deserved to lose an incredible match, but Keane’s extra class meant Tottenham’s season is back on track after last week’s FA Cup mauling at Southampton, while Everton are now without a win in five Premiership matches.

The sides went in level at the interval but a frenetic second half resulted in five more goals as both sides went for broke in search of a much-needed win. Seven minutes from the end of this amazing match, Spurs edged in front again when Keane completed his hat-trick with a superb solo effort.

Baardsen’s goal-kick was headed back by Gary Doherty and Stubbs missed his header, leaving Keane to run free 35 yards from goal. He surged forward and skipped past Yobo into the penalty area before chipping the ball over Baardsen to give his side the lead for the third and final time.

Glenn Hoddle paid tribute to Keane after the striker’s hat-trick put Tottenham back in the hunt for a UEFA Cup place. And the Spurs boss believes Keane will continue to improve as he matures and grows into his role with the North London club.

Hoddle revealed he had fired up his side at half-time by resorting to a traditional dressing-down of his players after an unconvincing first half which ended 1-1: “I gave them an old-fashioned rollicking at half-time and sometimes that works.

“We were second to the ball, we had too much apprehension in our play and the crowd were never going to get behind us playing like that.

Everton manager David Moyes refused to panic despite seeing his side make it five Premiership matches without a win. The Goodison Park chief also claimed he was pleased with his side’s display especially after last week’s FA Cup defeat against Third Division Shrewsbury: “This was a marked improvement on the game last week and that’s a plus. I would be worried if I was fifth from bottom of the league, but we are sixth from top.”

The Everton boss was happy with the contribution of McBride who joined on a three-month loan from American side Columbus Crew last week: “Brian did very well for us. He worked hard and took his goal well and lasted the full 90 minutes.”

Moyes was also satisfied with the direction of the club despite their dip in form: “We’ve been doing well for the last five or six months but we are not going to start shouting about it until we know it’s going to be over a sustained period. We want to improve over the next two or three years, but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

TOTTENHAM: Keller, Perry, Doherty, King, Carr, Davies, Poyet, Anderton, Bunjevcevic, Iversen (Acimovic 80), Keane.

EVERTON: Baardsen, Yobo (Carsley 86), Pistone, Stubbs, Unsworth, Tie Li (Osman 90), Gemmill, Naysmith, Watson, Radzinski, McBride.

Referee: S Dunn (Avon).