English FA Premiership/ Tottenham 1 Newcastle Utd 0: This was a match played in the Premiership's temperate zone.

Its tone was set before the kick-off when the rival managers Martin Jol and Graeme Souness chatted amiably for some minutes, like neighbours discussing their spring blooms over the garden fence.

It was not a match totally without meaning. Spurs moved into seventh place with their fourth successive home win.

Newcastle's thoughts of Europe are more urgent, with Sporting Lisbon coming up in the Uefa Cup on Thursday, three days before their FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United. At least this match gave them a clue as to how they may fare without the banned Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer in the latter match.

It does not look good. They face real difficulties in midfield without those two, particularly as Nicky Butt and Jermaine Jenas are in such ordinary form. There is also a chance of a problem up front. Alan Shearer suffered a dead leg and did not appear for the second half.

Neither side looked quite good enough to win here and it took a bizarre goal just before half-time to settle it. There appeared no danger when the Newcastle full-back Celestine Babayaro passed back to the goalkeeper Steve Harper, playing in place of Shay Given who has a sore hip. But when Harper tried to clear the ball it clipped the heels of Michael Brown and Jermain Defoe nipped in for his 23rd goal of the season.

Souness had a point when he said: "Two goalkeepers made a mistake. We got punished for ours and they got away with theirs."

The other gaffe he was referring to came in the 58th minute when Paul Robinson and Ledley King were involved in an awful mix-up only for James Milner to clip wide of the open goal.

Jol looked as indifferent as everybody else who had watched this match. "I was very pleased for the first 25 or 30 minutes," he said. "Then we lost it before picking it up again in the second half. But we did well in midfield, with Michael Carrick pulling the strings. We had to win today because we have some tough matches coming up." Their next three games are against Liverpool, West Brom and Arsenal.

Newcastle should have taken the lead in the 27th minute when Jenas crossed from the right and Shola Ameobi headed down into the ground and over the bar. But against that Spurs could point to the two chances wasted by Frederic Kanoute in the 75th and 83rd minutes.

Spurs were marginally the better side, with Simon Davies and Andy Reid lending Carrick good support in midfield and full backs Stephen Kelly and Edman also impressive.

Rumours of Robbie Keane leaving White Hart Lane reached fever pitch over the weekend. The Republic of Ireland striker again started this match on the bench. Maybe the club are bored with his goal celebrations. Or, more likely, they feel those celebrations don't come often enough. ...

Guardian Service