Pleat - Postiga will earn his Spurs

David Pleat has urged Tottenham fans to be patient with Helder Postiga.

The young Portuguese striker flopped again during yesterday’s 2-1 win over Aston Villa at White Hart Lane.

Postiga – who already has a couple of full international caps under his belt - missed two golden chances to score from close range.

His blushes were spared, though, by Rohan Ricketts and Robbie Keane who grabbed the goals as Spurs came from behind to leave Villa entrenched in the bottom three.

Postiga is still searching for his first goal in English football following his £6.25m (€9m) summer move from Porto, but caretaker-manager Pleat is showing the 21-year-old plenty of patience.

“Helder is working harder and he is getting used to it, but the language is a barrier at times, I have to tell you,” said Pleat.

“It takes time for these players to adapt and he showed good determination and effort, but the ball didn’t run kindly for him.

“His head won’t drop at all, Fredi Kanoute is on his way back and we need the competition – Bobby Zamora looked like he’d had a rocket up his backside when he came on.

“We scored two goals in an important game and it doesn’t matter who scored them and I was very happy to win the game.”

Pleat also hinted that Spurs might give more responsibilities to first-team coach Chris Hughton as they continue their search for a permanent successor to Glenn Hoddle.

That would mean adopting a more continental style, with a coach running the first team and the director of football handling everything else.

“The club will be putting out a statement sometime before Christmas,” added Pleat. “I am just trying to explain how things work and how things can work.

“What we should be looking at is having a head coach in charge of the senior players, worried just about coaching and the game on a Saturday.

“Chris has already done a terrific job here. We have carried things for the past few weeks.

“A director of football would sort out players’ contracts and deal with agents.”

The changes are expected to be sanctioned at the club’s annual meeting on December 11.

Hughton, who has been with the club since 1979, is also assistant coach with Ireland and it is the third time the two men have worked together in this role.

Hughton also played for Pleat when he was the manager in the late 1980s.