Ramos angry as sorry Spurs feel the Forss

MIKAEL Forssell’s first hat-trick in English football undoubtedly owed a debt to Tottenham’s party hangover, but that didn’t curtail his own celebrations after the most memorable afternoon of his career.

Still only 26, Forsell has endured a catalogue of injuries since moving to England nine years ago and was almost shipped out to Hanover last season. But since the arrival of manager Alex McLeish, who once tried to buy him at Rangers, the striker has started to blossom. He has threatened goals and Spurs proved surprisingly hapless victims.

“I dreamt about a day like this,” said Forssell. “It’s been a long road, but now I’m hoping my best years are still ahead of me. Even during the darkest days when I wasn’t playing and was put aside completely, I still believed I had it in me. I have learned that anything can happen in football. I love this club and feel I have unfinished business here.”

Belief was something Tottenham lacked as they invited Birmingham to take three easy points in their fight for Premier League survival.

Juande Ramos insists the league remains important to their season, but a fixture at St Andrew’s, sandwiched between the Carling Cup final and an important UEFA Cup tie against PSV on Thursday, always threatened to be little more than an inconvenience. Ramos refused to blame the extended celebrations which followed last Sunday’s victory over Chelsea at Wembley for the bleary-eyed nature of this heavy defeat and refuted any suggestions that winning cups is now the priority at White Hart Lane.

“I’m a competitive manager, for me there is no difference between cups and the league,” said Ramos.

“When players achieve a big success they deserve to have a big party. But they had plenty of time to recover, and I wouldn’t blame that in any way for this result.”

Ramos, nevertheless, will want his first-choice central defensive pairing of Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King, both injured, back to face PSV. Their absence left a hole which Pascal Chimbonda and Younes Kaboul never looked capable of filling, and a half-time reshuffle which placed Didier Zakora alongside them made things worse.

Spurs nearly regained an instant foothold when Dimitar Berbatov hit the post shortly after Forssell’s seventh-minute opener, but there was no way back after Sebastian Larsson and Forssell scored twice within four second-half minutes. The visitors were a ragged bunch long before Forsell completed his hat-trick in the 81st minute.

Jermaine Jenas scored a last-minute consolation, but this was Tottenham’s worst performance under Ramos.

He added: “Some of our players showed less than full commitment. We have proved we cannot compare with the Premiership’s top four in terms of the depth of our squad.”

BIRMINGHAM (4-4-2): Maik Taylor 6, Kelly 6, Jaidi 6, Ridgewell 6, Murphy 6, Larsson 6, Johnson 7, Muamba 6, McSheffrey 6 (Parnaby 70, 6), McFadden 7 (Zarate 84, 6), Forssell 8 (Jerome 84, 5).

Subs Not Used: Doyle, Nafti.

TOTTENHAM (4-4-2): Robinson 5, Hutton 5, Zokora 5 (Gunter 73, 5), Kaboul 5, Chimbonda 5, Malbranque 5 (Keane 46, 5), O’Hara 6, Tainio 5 (Jenas 46, 6), Huddlestone 6, Berbatov 5, Bent 5.

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Lennon.

REFEREE: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) 7. Didn’t have too many major decisions to make.

MATCH RATING: *** Tottenham had more possession and chances, but the result was always more important to Birmingham, and it showed.