A Tottenham XI came from two goals down to secure a 4-2 victory at Rushden & Diamonds.

Pekhart treble inspires Tottenham

A Tottenham XI came from two goals down to secure a 4-2 victory at Rushden & Diamonds. A hat-trick from Czech striker Tomas Pekhart inspired Juande Ramos' men to victory at Nene Park. The Premier League outfit had fallen behind inside three minutes when Ben Alnwick's tame punch fell kindly for Lee Phillips to drill home. Two minutes later and the hosts doubled their lead when Curtis Osano escaped down the right and cut the ball back for Andy Burgess to curl a classy finish into the bottom corner. However, Spurs then sprung to life less than 60 seconds later when Adel Taarabt escaped his man in the middle of the park and threaded a pass through to Pekhart to fire into the far corner.

Dominating

Tottenham were now dominating and it came as no surprise when they levelled things up on 37 minutes through a Pekhart header. Once again Rushden failed to regroup after conceding and fell behind almost immediately through a Gareth Jellyman own goal. Michael Rankine did hit the woodwork for the home side as the half came to close, but they were unable to force a further breakthrough. The second period failed to replicate the excitement of the first, although Pekhart did grab his third of the game on 51 minutes when he escaped the attentions of two defenders to crash the ball into the roof of the net. Phillips then missed a golden opportunity to bring Rushden back into the game four minutes later as he saw his penalty drift wide of the post. Clear-cut chances were then few and far between in the final half-an-hour as the game became littered with substitutions.