If there is any grain of hope in the sorry saga that is Newcastle United, it is that there is one team worse than them in the Barclays Premier League at the moment. Tottenham Hotspur confirmed that against Portsmouth at Fratton Park yesterday with another abject display, their sixth successive league match without a win since the start of the season.

At least Tottenham, unlike the soap opera at St James’ Park, can claim that their club are stable. The question is, though, for how much longer? The fans voiced their discontent when Juande Ramos, the head coach, replaced Roman Pavlyuchenko with Darren Bent in the second half — “You don’t know what you’re doing,” they chanted — and it cannot be long before the boardroom privately considers similar thoughts.

To get a squad to gel, after a multitude of comings and goings amid a turnover of £150 million during the summer, will take time. Yet despite victories in the Carling Cup — ironically, against Newcastle — and Uefa Cup, Tottenham have appeared mostly clueless in their pursuit of domestic points. And that is where Ramos will be ultimately judged.

“No, I was not hurt,” the Spaniard said of the chants. “It hurts when I’m not winning games.”

Asked if he could survive the growing disenchantment at White Hart Lane, Ramos said: “That’s something that does not depend on me. We have a board and chairman to decide those things. We speak regularly and everyone realises that it is a delicate situation. We are all working hard to resolve it.”

Ramos’s tactics were baffling. A team, such as Portsmouth, who had conceded ten goals in their previous two matches should, surely, have been attacked with gusto. Yet in Ramos’s book, apparently not. Pavlyuchenko roamed alone up front with little support or decent service.

The explanation, that the system had worked in the 2-1 win at St James’ Park four days earlier, is plausible. Yet every player has to play a vigorous part and, at Fratton Park, they did not. David James, the out-of-form Portsmouth goalkeeper, should have been pressured but was barely troubled until the closing stages.

At least Portsmouth carried a threat. A goal was deserved in the first half and duly arrived when Jermaine Jenas was judged to have handled a free kick from Glen Little and Jermain Defoe stepped up to take the penalty.

Defoe, signed from Tottenham for £7.5 million in January, had missed tamely from the spot in Portsmouth’s 2-0 win in the first leg of their

Uefa Cup first-round tie against Guimarães. This time, he went for power instead of precision and easily registered his thirteenth goal in 18 appearances since leaving White Hart Lane.

Fabio Capello, the watching England manager, will have been impressed as he ponders his squad for the World Cup qualifying matches against Kazakhstan and Belarus next month. Defoe was a constant threat. Not so Jenas, whose lightweight promptings in midfield did little to help his international cause.

Tottenham were better in the second half, with Aaron Lennon affording them greater potency in attack. Mike Dean, the referee, could have been more generous when a cross from Lennon struck the arm of Lassana Diarra but ruled no penalty. “It was the same sort of incident as with Jenas,” Ramos said. “At critical moments, we get no help.”

It was a critical moment. Portsmouth responded with a second goal, when Peter Crouch nodded in after Armand Traoré had stung Heurelho Gomes’s fingers with a thunderbolt, and Ramos bringing on Bent attracted only derision. Even the late loss of Diarra, sent off for two bookable offences, failed to disrupt Portsmouth’s comfort zone.

Tottenham next set off for Poland, with a 2-1 advantage, for Thursday’s second leg of their Uefa Cup first-round tie against Wisla Krakow. They meet Hull City, conquerors of Arsenal on Saturday, at home on Sunday. Exit Europe, lose to Hull, and Ramos might be summoned for another of his regular chats in the boardroom.

Portsmouth (4-4-2): D James 5 - G Johnson 7, S Campbell 6, S Distin 6, N Belhadj 5 - G Little 5, L Diarra 7, R Hughes 6, A Traoré 6 - J Defoe 7, P Crouch 5. Substitutes: J Utaka 5 (for Little, 62min); Y Kaboul (for Defoe, 90). Not used: J Ashdown, H Hreidarsson, N Pamarot, A Mvuemba, Kanu. Next: Stoke City (h).

Tottenham (4-1-4-1): H Gomes 4 - V Corluka 5, M Dawson 5, J Woodgate 5, B Assou-Ekotto 4 - D Zokora 6 - D Bentley 5, J Jenas 4, J O’Hara 6, Gilberto 4 - R Pavlyuchenko 5. Substitutes: A Lennon 6 (for Gilberto, 46); Giovani dos Santos 5 (for Zokora, 58min); D Bent (for Pavlyuchenko, 74). Not used: C Sánchez, T Huddlestone, L Modric, C Gunter. Next: Hull City (h).