Tottenham's beleaguered manager George Graham saw his team's recent barren patch dramatically transformed last night when three goals in the space of five minutes overhauled Charlton and set up a home tie with Stockport for a place in the sixth round.
It was a game Spurs could not afford to lose but few would have backed them to win after a run of only one victory in 11 games against Premiership opponents. However, they must at least have felt confident of avoiding defeat. The two sides had drawn 0-0 in a dire match at White Hart Lane on Saturday and Tottenham arrived on the back of four goalless stalemates.
They finally broke that unhappy sequence last night, but even then it took an own goal from Richard Rufus to start the ball rolling before Darren Anderton equalised and Oyvind Leonhardsen snapped up the third within a minute. Sergei Rebrov then rounded off matters with Tottenham's fourth in the 82nd minute.
After only 11 minutes, though, they had found themselves behind. Chris Powell, a lifelong Spurs fan, was the scorer and by ripping off his shirt to celebrate his first goal for Charlton on his 110th start he earned himself a booking.
Sean Bartlett set up the goal when he flicked on a knockdown by Mathias Svensson, and as Neil Sullivan hesitated in coming off his line, Powell nipped between two defenders to head into an empty net.
By then Rebrov and Leonhardsen had shot wide for Tottenham, who began without a goal in more than six hours and had moved Gary Doherty up from centre back to partner Rebrov in the absence of the cup-tied Andy Booth.
Forced forward in search of an equaliser, Spurs proceeded to dominate. Although Tottenham were passing with far greater fluency and looking much livelier than they had at the weekend, they created very little early on.
Just past the half-hour, Spurs wasted two good chances as Charlton struggled to make any headway in attack. When a Rebrov shot was deflected into the path of Tim Sherwood, the midfielder might have done better than allow Sasa Ilic to make a good save. Rebrov himself was guilty of the next miss, clipping wide from Doherty's pull-back.
Graham must have been cursing his players' lack of conviction and confidence in front of goal when Charlton scored their second three minutes after the restart. Rufus began the move when he picked up a clearance by Campbell, and Graham Stuart's cross was eventually swept past Sullivan by Svensson.
The first chants of "We want Graham out" were soon audible and with Spurs lacking shape, it seemed a third was inevitable. Instead, having failed to score for seven hours, Spurs got three in quick succession.
Rufus got the first with an own goal, diverting the ball past Ilic from Doherty's cross. And no sooner had Anderton squeezed in a low free-kick, which the goalkeeper might have stopped, than Spurs had another almost straight from the kick-off, Leonhardsen bursting clear to shoot across Ilic into the far corner.
CHARLTON: Ilic, Rufus, Todd, Fish, Kishishev (Newton 66), Stuart, Parker (Salako 67), Jensen, Powell, Svensson, Bartlett (Lisbie 72). Subs Not Used: Brown, Caig. Booked: Powell, Todd, Svensson. Goals: Powell 11, Svensson 49.
TOTTENHAM: Sullivan, Campbell, Perry (Carr 88), Young, King, Freund, Anderton, Sherwood, Leonhardsen, Rebrov, Doherty. Subs Not Used: Walker, Armstrong, Clemence, Etherington. Booked: Freund, Sherwood. Goals: Rufus 58 og, Anderton 62, Leonhardsen 63, Rebrov 82.
Referee: S Dunn (Bristol).
