Spurs labour to beat out-of-form Brighton

Tottenham 2 Brighton 0

Tottenham secured safe passage into the last eight of the Capital One Cup with an unconvincing 2-0 victory against out-of-form Brighton on largely uninspiring night at White Hart Lane.

This was just a fourth win in all competitions since August for Mauricio Pochettino’s side but they made heavy weather of progressing into the quarter-finals as substitute Erik Lamela and top goalscorer Harry Kane struck in the second half to see off their Sky Bet Championship opponents.

Club-record signing Lamela was introduced at half-time and needed just nine minutes to open the scoring before Kane, dropped for the weekend loss, added to his Europa League hat-trick of six days ago to seal the tie.

Lamela exchanged clever passes with Soldado before slotting home from 12 yards and the game was killed off with a little over 15 minutes to go as Kane, still without a Barclays Premier League start this season, continued to show his credentials for both club and country.

Townsend’s cross was sent goalwards by a combination of Dunk and Soldado with Walton doing well to keep it out only to see Kane arrive and turn home for his seventh goal of the season.

Roy Hodgson will soon be picking his squad for the upcoming fixtures against Slovenia and Scotland and, with Daniel Sturridge injured and his Liverpool team-mate Rickie Lambert out of form, Kane will be hoping to have done enough to earn a first senior call despite his lack of league minutes.

The 21-year-old was replaced by Paulinho in the latter stages and the reception given by the home fans show that he is a player they have come to appreciate, especially with Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor failing to hit the same heights.

Tottenham Hotspur: Vorm, Naughton, Fazio, Vertonghen, Davies, Lennon (Lamela 46), Stambouli, Dembele, Townsend (Chadli 81), Kane (Paulinho 84), Soldado.

Brighton: Walton, Calderon, Hughes, Dunk, Chicksen, Holla, Ince, Forster-Caskey (Gardner 66), McCourt (Teixeira 66), LuaLua (Mackail-Smith 88), Adrian Colunga.

Referee: Mark Clattenburg