Kanoute forgiven for Cup shocker

Tottenham manager Martin Jol today forgave Frederic Kanoute for the “unforgivable” aberration which cost Spurs a place in the Carling Cup semi-finals.

But Kanoute’s eccentric behaviour was clearly still grating the Dutchman today after Tottenham had blown their best chance of qualifying for Europe.

Tottenham, who should have killed the game off by half-time but wasted a glut of chances, finally took the lead 18 minutes into extra-time through Jermain Defoe.

They were on the brink of a semi-final against Championship side Watford when Kanoute inexplicably handled inside his own box.

Florent Sinama-Pongolle kept his nerve to slot home the spot-kick and Liverpool’s youngsters then edged the penalty shoot-out as Kanoute and Michael Brown both failed.

“I was angry with him, everybody was, but we have to go on,” Jol said today.

“I have seen it on television and it is even more unbelievable. Nobody can understand it, but it’s not the first time or last time in football.

“He was disappointed and so he should be. But it is after the game, so what can you do?

“I said yesterday it was unforgivable, but I have forgiven him. I have to. We have to move on and we have to learn from this.

“I am not worried. Kanoute is an experienced player. I will talk to him tomorrow.

“If we had scored two or three goals no-one would have been talking about Fredi. You have a chat and a laugh and tell him not to do it again. But now it has cost us dearly.”

Tottenham had identified the Carling Cup as their best route into Europe, particularly as they would have faced Watford in the last four and would have been comfortable favourites to reach the Millennium Stadium final next February.

But once again, Jol’s men were let down by a raft of individual mistakes. Kanoute, Robbie Keane and Rohan Ricketts all missed gilt-edged chances and the one piece of fortune Tottenham enjoyed was when Anthony Gardner avoided a red card for what appeared a professional foul on Sinama-Pongolle.

It is this habit of self-inflicted wounds that Jol is desperately trying to hammer out of his players and he reeled off a series of examples where Tottenham shot themselves in the foot.

“In every team there is someone like Fredi. You think ’what is he doing?’ And they do it.

“I think it’s a good group of players, but I have told them we need a top mentality.

“Jermain Defoe knew it was a booking (to take his shirt off in a goal celebration) and he still did it.

“It is the same for Anthony Gardner. Other referees may have punished him. You have to learn from that. We are punishing ourselves.

“I am frustrated because the Arsenal game was the same, the Aston Villa game was the same. Nourredine Naybet made a mistake against Arsenal. Robinson made a mistake when he threw the ball out (in a mix-up with Ledley King and Arsenal scored).

“There was a lack of concentration from Fredi against Aston Villa (Nolberto Solano juggled the ball in Tottenham box and scored).

“Football is all about mistakes but these mistakes you can avoid and you have to learn from each other. We don’t make it easy on ourselves and to make life better for yourself is the quality of a good team.”

The Tottenham players were today rallying round Kanoute, with Michael Carrick declaring: “When you are 1-0 up with 10 minutes to go it is hard to take, but it is one of those things.

“We had defended well all night but it happens. You can’t legislate for things like that.”

Tottenham must pick themselves up ahead of this weekend’s Barclays Premiership trip to Blackburn.

Carrick added: “We have got to focus on Blackburn now. It’s a big time for us leading up to Christmas. When you are in and around the bottom end of the the table it gets difficult.

“A couple of wins should see to that and we can start looking to the future instead of back. Blackburn are down there and if we play well we have a chance against almost anyone.”