A SPECTACULAR goal by Tottenham’s overlapping Argentine wing-back Mauricio Taricco excited the crowd, galvanised Spurs, turned the tide, and enabled them eventually to run out convincing winners.

This was never a game of any great quality. Indeed, you might say the two Tottenham goals — “two excellent goals” according to their manager Glenn Hoddle — were worthy of a finer setting.

Hoddle paid tribute not only to his team, but to the crowd. “They set the game alight, and the goal Mauricio scored really had them out of their seats and lifted the team. We were a goal down, and could have had three, four or five.”

A goal down, in fact, as early as the fifth minute, and it was rather a peculiar one. Seth Johnson rolled a free kick with his left foot to Alan Smith on the right. Smith struck it low, diagonally and right-footed from some 25 yards out and somehow it found its way into the corner.

Taricco’s goal was indeed a dramatic one, though he could to some extent thank a Leeds defence which stood off him as, taking a well-judged cross-field pass by Bobby Zamora, he pivoted to let fly a tremendous right-footed drive which zoomed past the right hand of Paul Robinson.

Tottenham came out after half-time a livelier team — in the first minute of the second period, they threatened three times to double their lead.

Peter Reid, Leeds United’s manager, put the best face he could on the defeat. “Despite the result,” he said, “we got off to a great start. I was pleased with the effort.”

Spurs’ second goal was the result of a piece of high finesse by Frederic Kanoute. He had been on the field only 10 minutes when, in the 71st minute, Stephen Carr took a free kick, Ledley King headed on and Kanoute, with his back to the goal, flicked the ball up and hooked it in.

“It was a magnificently taken goal,” said Hoddle, who discounted suggestions that the team was under pressure. “If there’s any pressure, I’d rather it be on my shoulders than the players’. There wasn’t any pressure. You could see how they played today.”

Tottenham Hotspur: Keller, King, Richards, Gardner, Carr, Redknapp, Davies, Ricketts, Taricco (Marney 86min), Postiga, Zamora (Kanoute 61min)

Leeds United: Robinson, Kelly, Radebe, Camara, Matteo, Sakho (Domi 64min), Morris, Johnson, Wilcox (Pennant 55min), Smith, Viduka (Lennon 78min)

Scorers: Tottenham: Taricco 41, Kanoute 71

Leeds: Smith 5

Referee: S Dunn

Attendance: 34,354

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