Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur: match report Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur at St Mary's Stadium on Sunday Dec 22, 2013. Andre Villas-Boas' decision to ignore Emmanuel Adebayor looks even more of an expensive mistake now. Brought in from the cold by Tim Sherwood, Adebayor added to his fine volley in the Capital One Cup against West Ham United with a double in the Premier League to help defeat Southampton at St Mary's. Adebayor's constant movement, work-rate and accurate marksmanship was particularly important as Roberto Soldado was again profligate, the Spaniard missing two sitters. Spurs deserved victory, recovering from a sluggish start when the hosts' best player, Adam Lallana, was linking moves, and finishing one for Southampton. Spurs hit back, equalizing through Adebayor's athletic volley, taking the lead through Jos Hooiveld's own goal and responding to Rickie Lambert's leveler with Adebayor's low shot. Tottenham players are clearly responding to the bold tactics of Sherwood, whose job prospects will have been improved by this win. Southampton have lost some of their early-season brio, and were missing significant players defensively, but this was still a welcome, merited win for the visitors. One negative was Mousa Dembele limping off but there was also the positive of a strong cameo from Nabil Bentaleb, the French holding midfielder. Bentaleb's emergence from the bench was another reminder of Sherwood's commitment to giving youth a chance. He will hope this result and performance will persuade Daniel Levy to give him a chance. Sherwood's push for what he jokingly referred to as a "ten-year contract" - or more realistically an interim role until the end of the season - saw him field a highly attacking line-up with Adebayor partnering Soldado and the width provided by Erik Lamela and the left-sided Gylfi Sigurdsson. Christian Eriksen was withdrawn into midfield, assisting Dembele. "The key message is to relax and try to play,'' Sherwood said before kick-off. They did eventually relax, helped by some errant defending by Southampton. Mauricio Pochettino's side were in charge early on as Spurs worked out how to play without a holding midfielder. With Lallana shining in front of the watching England coach, Ray Lewington, Southampton attacked confidently towards Hugo Lloris' goal. Taking control of a free-kick 35 yards out, Lambert lifted the ball over the wall, and the sun could have made life difficult for Lloris but the Frenchman saved well. Lallana then hustled Dembele into giving up the ball, requiring Eriksen to clear up. Spurs' ball retention was poor in the early stages. Adebayor lost the ball far too easily to Dejan Lovren, allowing Southampton to build towards their opening goal. Danny Fox worked the ball to Lallana in the centre. Lallana should have been closed down by Vlad Chiriches but he stood off. From the edge of the area, Lallana turned and placed a low shot past Lloris. "He's off to Brazil,'' chanted the Southampton fans of their England international. During this period of rich promise for Southampton, Lallana was running the show, turning and lifting a pass from left to right to Steven Davis. Southampton were in charge for a while. Danny Fox was too strong for Eriksen. Lambert muscled Danny Rose off the ball, and played a pass in to Lallana, who kept moving in to intelligent positions. Lallana helped the ball on to Jay Rodriguez, whose right-footed shot was too high to worry Lloris. Sherwood, a former Portsmouth player not guaranteed the warmest of welcomes here, vacated his viewing station amongst the smart seats and hurried down to the dug-out. Shortly after he arrived in the technical area, Spurs equalised. Lamela prodded the ball through the middle to Adebayor, who sprinted upfield, noting Soldado's journey down the left. When Adebayor released the ball, the Southampton fans crowed, believing he had overhit it. Soldado collected the ball comfortably, paused and then curled the ball around Lovren towards Adebayor. For all his labours in front of goal, Soldado's technique was obvious. It was a superb cross, picking out Adebayor perfectly. Finding space between Hoiveld and Fox, Adebayor leapt up and met the ball with a right- footed volley that sped past Paulo Gazzaniga from five yards. Bouyed by the goal, Spurs attacked more and more. Sigurdsson's shot was blocked by Steven Davis. Eriksen's cross was headed out by Lovren. But Southampton rallied towards the interval, Callum Chambers again impressing with some of his surges down the right. Spurs began to exploit Southampton's much-changed defence. Southampton were missing some of their more familiar faces like Artur Boruc, Jose Fonte, Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne.

• published: 22 Dec 2013
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