0-2 v West Bromwich Albion - 28 December 2005 - Away

Two Kanu goals gave West Brom three valuable points in their battle against the drop and consigned Spurs to their third defeat of the season. The Nigerian striker rounded Spurs keeper Paul Robinson to give the Baggies a deserved half-time lead.

Then, seven minutes after the break, he was able to capitalise on a mistake by Anthony Gardner to fire into the net.

The defeat brought Spurs' run of six unbeaten games to an end but they hardly deserved anything.

While Albion had showed little endeavour above damage limitation against Manchester United two days previously, they were a different proposition in the opening stages at the Hawthorns.

Robinson had to react smartly to deny Nathan Ellington but few of the travelling Spurs fans could have denied the home side deserved their lead midway through the first half.

It did come under fortuitous circumstances as Michael Carrick's tackle on Diomansy Kamara could not have fallen better for Kanu.

After he had evaded Michael Dawson's challenge, he waited for Robinson to go to ground before rounding the Spurs keeper and applying the simplest of finishes.

Bryan Robson's side have not won on their travels but looked set for a fifth home win as Tottenham, with Jermain Defoe and Grzegorz Rasiak forming a new strike partnership, seemed desperate for a decision to go their way to bring them back into the game.

Twice they appealed for penalties in the first half for fouls on Edgar Davids and Defoe but referee Mike Riley waved the appeals away.

It appealed Davids was holding onto Ronnie Wallwork rather than the other way round when he went down although Neil Clement's challenge on Defoe may have provided cause for thought.

Without the dependable penalty-area dominance of Ledley King, Spurs always looked uncomfortable in defence.

Up front, Rasiak and Defoe were unable to gel as they posed little threat.

They contributed to their own downfall seven minutes after the break when King's replacement, Gardner, gave the ball away to Kanu deep in the Spurs half.

The Nigerian striker needed no second invitation to fire home his fifth goal of the season and, for the second time that evening, celebrated with the ball boy marshalling the area to the side of the goal.

Rather than spur Tottenham into a response which would merit their league standing, their play became all the more limp.

Defoe's shot on the turn, which was comfortably collected by Tomasz Kuzczak, was all the north London side could muster in way of a response.

They hardly looked like Champions League material while, at The Hawthorns, maybe the great escape will be on again.

West Brom manager Bryan Robson: "We have been playing some good football at home and it was a great result for us. "We have now played well at home against Manchester City and Spurs and we need to repeat that against teams lower down the table.

"It's always nice to keep a clean sheet in front of your home fans but we cannot rely on what we do at home. We need to get going away from home as well.

"I said that at the turn of the year, I wanted to have as many points as games played and we have managed that with this win."