Soccer: Keane orchestrates Spurs comeback

Tottenham 2 Aston Villa 1

Pleat said before the 2-1 victory over Aston Villa that the club were considering changing the structure of the club by employing a coach solely to look after the first team, with the director of football Pleat handling all other affairs.

And what would Spurs do without Robbie Keane? The Republic of Ireland star inspired a stirring comeback as he set up one goal for substitute Rohan Ricketts before scoring the winner himself against Aston Villa at White Hart Lane.

Villa were on their way out of the bottom three with what would have been their first away win in the league this season when Marcus Allback headed a fine goal from Peter Whittingham's cross after 66 minutes.

That brought a dull game to life, but Ricketts and Keane sealed a stirring comeback victory for Spurs.

Afterwards, Pleat paid tribute to the work of first-team coach Hughton as he revealed how all would become clear in a statement to be issued by the club before Christmas.

"Chris Hughton is doing a terrific job can you write that?" Pleat said.

"There is Chris Hughton, Clive Allen who is part-time and me, and we have been carrying it for the past few weeks, and we feel that the players have got a spirit.

"Chris is also working with the Republic of Ireland, and he was away with them last week so he is working tremendously hard, we all are.

"The club will be making a statement before Christmas, that is all I know, and that is all I can say. I am just trying to explain how things work and how things can work.

"The club's annual meeting is coming up [on December 11], and we'll be able to say more then regarding the role and how we view it, and how we are going to take it forward."

Hughton, Brian Kerr's sidekick with the Republic of Ireland, is a highly-respected coach with some of the best qualifications in the game. He spent 11 years as a player at White Hart Lane and has now worked under five different managers at the club.

His first real coaching role came when Christian Gross came to Spurs. At the time, chairman Alan Sugar said he was being groomed as a future manager.

Pleat preferred to talk in riddles about the future of the club rather than the game, which Spurs won thanks to two fine individual goals.

He added: "The conditions made it tremendously difficult, and it became a scrappy game, but we had a stickability and came through in the end."

Villa boss David O'Leary felt his team gifted Spurs the points by failing to defend their lead.

He said: "We have a lot of youngsters in the team, and they have to learn how to finish it off when you go a goal up with 15 minutes to go.

"It will be a tough season because a lot of teams are bunched closely together, and with the ability we have, we should have more points.

"Of course it concerns me that we are in the bottom three, it is not nice, but they are a good bunch of players. There are a lot of points and a lot of matches, and we have to go out there and try to win them."

TOTTENHAM: Keller, Carr, Taricco, Gardner, Richards, Anderton, Dalmat, Konchesky (Ricketts 57), King, Postiga (Zamora 73), Keane.

ASTON VILLA: Sorensen, Delaney (Dublin 80), Samuel, Mellberg, Johnsen, Barry, Hendrie (Stefan Moore 87), Hitzlsperger, Whittingham, Vassell, Allback.

Referee: J Winter (Cleveland).