Adebola brace heaps pressure on Graham

Birmingham City increased the misery for Tottenham's manager, George Graham, with this deserved victory over the 1999 Worthington Cup winners in the third round last night.

Birmingham City increased the misery for Tottenham's manager, George Graham, with this deserved victory over the 1999 Worthington Cup winners in the third round last night.

Graham - three times a winner of the League Cup, twice as manager of Arsenal - saw Dele Adebola score twice in the first 27 minutes and Mark Burchill add a third just before half-time to end Tottenham's unbeaten home record this season. Graham and his chairman, Sir Alan Sugar, were regaled with the customary chants of "Get out".

Graham admitted: "The first half was probably our worst performance since I've been at the club. I just couldn't believe it. It was embarrassing."

The transfer-listed Adebola was given another chance with Birmingham's leading scorers, Marcelo and Geoff Horsfield, both injured and he carved Spurs open with an incisive first-half display.

Spurs mustered a determined second-half rally, but without the injured Sergei Rebrov looked listless and indecisive in attack. Only their Irish full-back, Stephen Carr, and their industrious stand-in captain, Tim Sherwood, showed any spark.

Darren Anderton's penalty on the hour after Stephen Clemence had been pulled down by Michael Johnson briefly promised a revival after a first half that was a disaster for Spurs with their German midfielder, Steffen Freund, hobbling off after eight minutes with a pulled hamstring.

Birmingham's speedy Australian, Stan Lazaridis, crossed from the left after 14 minutes and Adebola scored from Ramon Vega's attempted clearance.

Ian Bennett saved two headers from Les Ferdinand before Birmingham exploited woeful defending on the counter-attack. In the 27th minute, Adebola sliced through on the right, cut inside and fired past the helpless Neil Sullivan.

Chris Perry brushed the Birmingham crossbar with a header from Anderton's free-kick, but a minute before the break Martin Grainger ran into space down the left and his low cross was turned past Sullivan by Burchill.

Graham switched to three at the back, taking off the substitute Simon Davies and bringing on Luke Young. That allowed Sherwood and Anderton to push forward to support Ferdinand and his makeshift strike-partner, Willem Korsten, but even after Anderton's penalty Tottenham's attack was too frenetic. When Ferdinand missed a 73rd-minute sitter, the game was up.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): Sullivan; Carr, Perry, Vega, Thatcher; Anderton, Freund (Davies, 8; Young, h-t), Sherwood, Clemence; Ferdinand, Korsten (Dominguez, 68). Substitutes not used: Doherty, Walker (gk).

Birmingham City: Bennett; Gill, Purse, M Johnson, Grainger, Eaden, O'Connor, Hughes, Lazaridis (Robinson, 79), Adebola, Burchill (Ndlovu, 74). Substitutes not used: Bass, A Johnson, Poole (gk).

Referee: D Pugh (Bebington).