SPURS 4 Wanderers 0: SAM Allardyce fears the strain of fighting for their Premiership lives is starting to take its toll on his battle-weary Wanderers.
For the second time in two months, the Reebok boss surveyed the wreckage of a heavy cup defeat at White Hart Lane and admitted: "There are players I need to take out of the side."
The problems are mounting but, with an ever-growing casualty list, it is difficult to see how the manager can offer his beleaguered players the respite they desperately need.
Because now, in addition to nursing the bodies, he is having to heal the minds after the spirit and confidence of his players have taken another fierce battering.
The FA Cup fourth round tie, it must be said, ranked only marginally higher on Wanderers' priority list than the Worthington Cup quarter-final in December. So defeat at Spurs last night was not the end of the world.
But, completing as it did, a 10-0 "aggregate" hammering at the North London ground, it could have done untold damage to their survival prospects.
Wanderers were poor, no-one in the camp could argue, and but for some world class saves by Jussi Jaaskelainen who put together a stunning series, there is no telling what the winning margin could have been. "He was magnificent," Glenn Hoddle said as he savoured a victory that was much more convincing than the scoreline suggests. "When he pulled off two world class saves at the beginning, I wondered if it was going to be one of those nights.
"We've scored a lot of goals against Bolton and it could have been more. Without the goalkeeper's performance I don't know what the scoreline would have been. But four was enough."
Allardyce claimed his players never really recovered after referee Steve Dunn awarded a penalty against Anthony Barness in the 21st minute for what was a perfectly good challenge on Darren Anderton. But Jaaskelainen had already pulled off three outstanding saves to keep the rampant Spurs at bay.
He was also unhappy that the Bristol ref "missed" the Dean Richards challenge that caused Mike Whitlow to withdraw at half time when he was violently sick and ended up being ferried to hospital by ambulance.
But he had to concede that, despite sending out what was his strongest possible side (no suggestion this time of electing to field a weakened team), Wanderers came a poor second to a very good Tottenham team.
"After the toils of Newcastle and the disappointment of losing that game, they looked weary last night and could not get to the pace of the game," he conceded.
"Even though Tottenham looked much better than we did, a bad decision again changed the course of the game. It was still nil-nil and we might have begun to improve. A goal for us at that point could have made all the difference but, in the end, it was a poor performance and we simply cannot hide the fact that we can't cope with the number of injuries we are carrying at the moment.
"They tried their best but ... our casualty list was Fredi Bobic (calf), Simon Charlton (knee), Per Frandsen (ankle), Paul Warhurst (calf), Bruno N'Gotty (ankle), Colin Hendry (ankle) and Rod Wallace left the squad because his daughter was ill. With Mick Whitlow having to go off, we simply had too many handicaps."
The night turned into a personal nightmare for Barness who, in addition to the harsh penalty verdict, had the embarrassment of discovering lightning can strike twice as he conceded an own goal 19 minutes from time - at the same end where he put through his own net in the Worthington Cup tie!
That was Spurs' fourth after man of the match Anderton added to his penalty success by laying on goals for Stefan Iversen and Matthew Etherington.
The man cruelly dubbed "Sicknote" during his battle to beat one of the most famous injury bugs in football celebrated his 300th appearance for Spurs with a vintage performance that could not have failed to have impressed Sven Goran Eriksson, who was watching from the stands. Unfortunately the same could not be said of Michael Ricketts, who lacked service or the opportunity to show his international credentials and was substituted before Wanderers had managed a single shot on target.
The Bolton players, who returned from their cup retreat today, are determined to stay upbeat as they prepare for Saturday's home game against West Ham - the first of a six-match sequence they see as crucial to their survival prospects.
"It's very disappointing," Ricketts confessed. "We went there thinking we could win it but we've had ten goals put past us in two games there and it's hard to swallow.
"At the moment we are struggling but we've got to fight. If we go into it (the West Ham game) thinking we'll get nothing, we will get beat."
Henrik Pedersen, who missed the Premiership game in December when Spurs snatched a 3-2 victory with a late Teddy Sheringham goal, admitted: "I don't know what went wrong. I've played down there twice and lost 10-0 ... it's not my favourite place."
Allardyce can at least offer his players a break now that Wanderers have a free weekend between the Premiership games against West Ham and at Southampton.
And it might be some comfort that, with three victories to nil this season, Hoddle knows revenge will be high on the agenda when Spurs come to the Reebok on April 20.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article