A stunning Ian Pearce strike two minutes from full time earned West Ham United a deserved point at Tottenham and maintained seventh place in the Premiership. Pearce, who has missed large parts of recent seasons through injurires and hadn't played since the visit to Aston Villa on March 2, crept unmarked to thunder a left foot shot past Kasey Keller from 22 yards after Steve Lomas' right wing cross was only half cleared by Simon Davies.
It was Pearce's fifth league goal for the club and his first in almost 18 months - since scoring in a 4-1 home win over Manchester City on November 11, 2000.
Although Hammers' late equaliser stunned the 36,083 White Hart Lane crowd, Spurs having dominated for long periods of the second half, a point each was a fair outcome because Hammers had created the best chances of a scrappy first half bathed in the north London sunshine.
With Paolo Di Canio (knee) and Joe Cole (thigh strain) both sidelined, manager Glenn Roeder shuffled the pack, pairing Jermain Defoe up front with Fredi Kanoute, who were supported from behind by the central Trevor Sinclair. Lomas and Michael Carrick did well to control midfield in the first half, although Vladimir Labant had a torrid time on the left and was regularly beaten by Davies, who supplied a string of dangerous crosses for Teddy Sheringham and Sergei Rebrov.
Christian Dailly, who made a fine, last gasp tackle to deny Rebrov in the 29th minute, Pearce and Tomas Repka looked assured in a back three that saw Labant and Sebastien Schemmel asked to cover plenty of ground from the wing-back positions.
Despite suffering from a bout of tonsillitis, Defoe looked sharp and caused Spurs' back three of Chris Perry, Anthony Gardner and Ben Thatcher plenty of headaches. He brought a low, diving save from Keller and, in the 22nd minute, set up Hammers' best chance. Receiving Sinclair's headed flick, Defoe raced to the left byline and delivered a sharp cross to the near post area, but Kanoute directed his shot wide of the post from close range.
Both teams, renowned for their neat passing play, struggled to find much cohesion and too often surrendered possession easily. Spurs stepped up a gear at the start of the second half, sending on Steffen Iversen for Rebrov, and his aerial threat immediately made an impact.
After Kanoute twisted and turned the Tottenham defence to fire a shot that had Keller scrambling across goal, Spurs' pressure paid off with the opening goal on 52 minutes.
Davies set Iversen clear through the middle and although David James did well to block his right-foot shotn on his six-yard line, the ball rebounded kindly to Sheringham, who tucked it away from penalty spot range.
It was important to stem the supply from wide areas, so there was no surprise when Roeder replaced the struggling Labant with the more defensively minded Wiunterburn, in the week in which it was revealed the 38-year-old veteran would be given a free transfer at the end of this season.
Tim Sherwood, arriving unmarked in the penalty area, could have wrapped it up for Spurs after 74 minutes, but his chest control and volley was brilliantly saved by the legs of James.
Four minutes later and Sinclair's dipping volley from 25 yards represented only the second goal attempt by Hammers after the interval. Carrick then angled a free-kick that drifted agonisingly wide of the far post and it seemed as though West Ham's three-match winning run was about to end in defeat.
But then Ian Pearce came from nowhere to score one of the goals of the season and, in his case, perhaps a lifetime!
