Keane bares all about Teddy

Robbie Keane is aware of the threat of former team-mate Teddy Sheringham ahead of tomorrow’s game against Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Republic of Ireland international striker Keane has described Sheringham as a ’pleasure to play alongside’.

Former England man Sheringham left for the south coast side in the summer after a two-season second spell at the club.

And Keane was keen to praise the impact the veteran striker had on his own game on the club’s official website, www.spurs.co.uk.

He said: “Teddy was a pleasure to play alongside, he’s a tremendous player and, the experience he’s got and the voice he brings to events was very helpful to me.

“It will be nice to see him – but I just hope he doesn’t put one past us.”

Keane is expecting a tough time at Portsmouth, and Spurs goalkeeper Kasey Keller has warned his team-mates they must not allow themselves to be dragged into a relegation “rut” over the Christmas period.

Spurs have suffered consecutive Barclaycard Premiership defeats to Newcastle and Manchester United, as well as going out of the Carling Cup on penalties to Middlesbrough in the past fortnight.

That has left them just 15th in the league table, although back-to-back victories against Portsmouth and Charlton in the next few days would lift them back up the table.

However, the American international is also conscious that his side need to rediscover consistency.

“The Barclaycard Premiership is all over the place at the moment. Take Bolton beating

Chelsea, there have been some weird results,” he observed.

“We just have to make sure that we keep thinks ticking over and don’t get into any sort of a rut.

“This is a big game for us. We have to show the same spirit that we did in the second-half against Manchester United and hopefully the ball will bounce the right way for us this time.

“It’s just frustrating that we haven’t been able to put everything together recently, but we lost one match on penalties and another by just one goal.

“We needed that piece of magic and little things went against us. We seem to be on the wrong end of those little bounces and we need to fix it.

“Losing at Newcastle and to Manchester United, that’s not a real crisis, while losing on penalties in the cup, that happens.

“Now we’ve got a couple of games coming up that we’ll see what we really are made of.

”It’s a transitional period at the moment and you can’t expect miracles. I think it will be good game, bad game, indifferent game, so if we can make sure we don’t get on a bad run, then everything will be fine.”

Spurs, who could also face another former player in Tim Sherwood, nevertheless have midfield injury problems to contend with.

While Paul Konchesky has been recalled to Charlton from his loan spell at White Hart Lane, former Portsmouth star Darren Anderton and Stephane Dalmat both face fitness tests.

Coach Chris Hughton said: “We don’t think that Darren’s injury is too bad.

“He felt his calf very early in the game and it was very much a blow for us. Having said that, Gus Poyet came on and did very well.

“We’ll find out more in the next day or two about Darren. Going back to Portsmouth is obviously a big game for him and I’m sure he’ll make every effort to be fit.”