Tottenham Hotspur are a club who pride themselves on their reputation for attacking football and their players earned themselves a place in White Hart Lane folklore last night with a thrilling performance that may have saved their manager’s job.

Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, must have been preparing to show Martin Jol the door when Craig Gardner put Aston Villa 4-1 up after an hour, but an amazing comeback, sealed with a stoppage-time goal by Younes Kaboul, probably ensured that the Dutch manager will be in charge when his side play Anorthosis Famagusta in the Uefa Cup on Thursday.

“We came back from the dead,” Jol said. “I have never been involved in a game like this. I was embarrassed when we were 4-1 down, but there are a lot of Marines in my family and a commando never leaves his troops. I kept my head cool, made some substitutions and hoped for the best.”

Tottenham were supposed to be celebrating their 125th anniversary, but Jol woke yesterday to headlines claiming that Juande Ramos, the Seville coach, had been offered £120,000 a week to swap southern Spain for North London.

Levy used his chairman’s column in the special souvenir programme - price £10 with all proceeds going to the Bill Nicholson Memorial Fund – to mark the club’s glorious past and while he made no mention of Jol, nearly all of the 50 Spurs legends, including Glenn Hoddle and David Ginola, who were introduced to the crowd, made a point of showing their support by embracing the downtrodden manager on the touchline before kick-off.

Jol would have been heartened further when Dimitar Berbatov scored his second goal of the season with a header from a corner. Tottenham’s defensive frailties have blighted their season and it was no surprise when Aston Villa equalised two minutes later.

Martin O’Neill’s team always looked dangerous and Martin Laursen made no mistake from close range when Paul Robinson, the Tottenham and England goalkeeper, dropped a Gareth Barry corner at his feet.

Jol’s job prospects would be a lot better if Tottenham could defend set-pieces and Laursen was in the right place at the right time as Villa took the lead in the 32nd minute. Ashley Young’s quick free kick found Barry unmarked and the England midfield player’s deep cross was headed back across goal by Zat Knight for Laursen to finish from close range.

Villa fans’ chants of “You’re going to get sacked in the morning”, directed at Jol, grew louder when the visiting team extended their lead. The Spurs legends in the stands must have been scratching their heads in disbelief as Gabriel Agbonlahor raced on to Luke Moore’s flicked header and turned Michael Dawson inside and out before beating Robinson with a low strike.

Robinson’s evening almost took another turn for the worse soon after the interval when he was fortunate not to give away a penalty in the 48th minute. The goalkeeper could not hold on to Ashley Young’s low free kick and he was lucky that Mike Dean, the referee, waved away Villa’s claims for a penalty after he appeared to bring down Agbonlahor while seeking to atone for his mistake.

Jermain Defoe’s introduction at the expense of Tainio lifted the spirits of the home fans, but more suspect goalkeeping by Robinson appeared to extinguish any hopes of a comeback. Gardner’s low free kick was powerful, but it was aimed at the side of the goal that Robinson should have been guarding. Unfortunately, Robinson is so low on confidence that it almost seemed inevitable that he would be picking the ball out of the net again.

At 4-1 down, Tottenham could have thrown in the towel, but they reduced the deficit when Pascal Chimbonda scored his side’s second goal after 68 minutes when Defoe’s strike rebounded out off a post. A grandstand finish was on the cards when Robbie Keane gave Spurs a glimmer of hope by scoring from the penalty spot after Marlon Harewood had bundled over Darren Bent in the penalty area, before Kaboul had the final word from 12 yards. “I’m very disappointed, but our performance augurs well for the future,” O’Neill said.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): P Robinson - P Chimbonda, M Dawson, Y Kaboul, G Bale – A Lennon (sub: S Malbranque, 86min), T Huddlestone, D Zokora, T Tainio (sub: J Defoe, 54) – D Berbatov (sub: D Bent, 73), R Keane. Substitutes not used: R Cerny, R Rocha. Booked: Kaboul.

Aston Villa (4-4-2): S Carson – O Mellberg, Z Knight, M Laursen, W Bouma – C Gardner (sub: S Petrov, 73), N Reo-Coker, G Barry, A Young – L Moore (sub: M Harewood, 66), G Agbonlahor. Substitutes not used: S Taylor, C Davies, I Osbourne. Booked: Gardner, Reo-Coker, Carson. Referee: M Dean.

The great comebacks

Leeds United 4 Derby County 3, Nov 8, 1997

Rod Wallace and Harry Kewell reduced a 3-0 deficit for Leeds by half-time, before Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, a substitute, scored from the penalty spot and set up Lee Bowyer’s 89th-minute winner.

Southampton 3 Liverpool 3, Aug 26, 2000

Liverpool led with two goals by Michael Owen and one by Sami Hyypia, but Southampon stormed back in the last 17 minutes, Marian Pahars scoring twice and Tahar El-Khalej.

Tottenham Hotspur 3 Manchester United 5, Sept 29, 2001

Tottenham’s 3-0 lead was overwhelmed after the break.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 4 Leicester City 3, Oct 25, 2003 Leicester led 3-0 at the break, but Henri Camara netted the Wolves winner four minutes from time.

Norwich City 4 Middlesbrough 4, Jan 22, 2005 Middlesbrough were 4-1 in front with ten minutes left, but Adam Drury levelled in the second minute of stoppage time.

Words by Bill Edgar