Defoe eager for more

Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe hopes his first goal in nearly three months will earn him a recall for Sunday’s trip to Middlesbrough and start his countdown for an England World Cup place.

The former West Ham marksman, dumped on the bench for four games after a barren run of no goals since September 26, admitted it was a major relief when he scored Spurs’ third in the 90th minute against Portsmouth last night.

The strike, which completed a 3-1 win, did not matter that much for the team. Mido’s hotly-disputed penalty six minutes earlier had already finished off Pompey, but a clever finish rewarded Defoe for a 20-minute contribution which turned Tottenham into winners on the night.

“It has been a long time coming,” sighed the relieved striker. “It has been frustrating but I have tried to not let it get to me and have kept my head down and worked hard in training.

“It has paid off here and I am really happy.”

Defoe also earned the free-kick from which fellow substitute Andy Reid’s first touch struck the arm of Gary O’Neil and gave Mido his spot-kick chance.

Then Defoe, whose last goal was his third of the season way back in September against Fulham, topped it off by scoring from an awkward angle.

Now Spurs, in fourth place in the Premiership, can see daylight between themselves and fifth-placed Bolton – and are two places and four points ahead of Arsenal.

“It is always good to be ahead of Arsenal,” said Defoe. “They have been the team in north London for such a long time. We’ve played a game more than them but it is still nice to be ahead.

“I was pleased with my goal. When I got the yard I thought I would take another touch and hit it by the goalkeeper’s feet.

“When it went in it was a great feeling and hopefully now I can get many more.”

Spurs made hard work of beating another Premiership struggler after the 3-2 battle with Sunderland last week – in which Robbie Keane missed a penalty.

“It was hard work, to be honest,” said Defoe. “Sitting watching on the touchline it looked difficult and they caused us problems with their strong forwards.

“Even though we were a goal down I think we always believed we were going to win the game. We’ve got a winning mentality now which is important. We won the game and it was good.

“Every game is hard and we knew this one would be with Harry Redknapp coming in, plus they need the points. We’ve not dropped many points at home, though, and the team spirit was great again.”

“I would certainly applaud the team’s character,” said head coach Martin Jol, who has seen Spurs lose just twice in the league this season and only fail to score once – when Defoe had what was proved a perfectly legitimate strike wiped out in the 1-0 defeat at Bolton last month.

It was after that match he was dropped and Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane brought in to partner the powerful Mido up front. The Egyptian has played every game this season apart from three out through suspension and looks central to Jol’s plans.

The Dutchman said: “Jermain showed he wants to be in the team and wants to score. I can’t possibly tell you five or six days before the next game who is going to play. It is always a difficult decision to make.

“We have to keep getting right because we are deservedly in fourth place because of our away form. It was nothing like this last season, but we have only lost once at Bolton – and that should not have happened.

“We are close to second now, just one point, but finishing the top six will make me happy.

“It must be years since we have had 30 points this early in the season but Chelsea, second to none, Liverpool – first the European champions now maybe the world – are in front of us and so are Manchester United.

“Bolton and Arsenal are top teams also and I still don’t think it is realistic talking about higher than top six. We will try but I feel we are not 100% yet. If we were, we would not have had such problems with Sunderland and Portsmouth.”

Jol admitted his experiment of playing winger Wayne Routledge down the middle as a substitute in his first game since the season’s opening game when he fractured a foot at Fratton Park, was a failure.

He took eventually took off the former Crystal Palace youngster and replaced him with Reid whose instant free-kick brought the decisive penalty.

“You just have to be a bit lucky sometimes,” admitted Jol. “It looks a bit harsh on Wayne, substituting a substitute, because he looked well in training and was okay, but they had five big players and it was a struggle for him on set-pieces.”