FA Premiership/Tottenham Hotspur 2 Middlesbrough 1: It will take more than this for Tottenham supporters to forget the pain of Saturday's heavy defeat at Arsenal, but Martin Jol's players gave the only acceptable response by beating Middlesbrough last night. The victory was merited but they made unnecessarily hard work of it as poor finishing allowed the visitors to equalise before substitute Robbie Keane got the winner from outside the box.

Ahead through Dimitar Berbatov's volley, Tottenham failed to take four chances to kill the game, with Jermain Defoe twice denied by the impressive Mark Schwarzer. That led to Robert Huth lashing in to level from an uncleared corner but Jol brought on Keane and almost immediately the striker found a way past Schwarzer from a short Tom Huddlestone free-kick.

Both sides ended a man short, Didier Zokora and George Boateng sent off after a set-to which followed a late Aaron Lennon tackle.

Martin Jol had used his programme notes to heavily criticise the performance of his players at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday. "It is unforgivable that we did not fight for every ball and continue to do that for the full 90 minutes," the head coach wrote.

The message appeared to have got through. There was no shortage of intensity here from Tottenham, with Zokora and Huddlestone setting the tone with strong tackles inside the first five minutes.

But Spurs' constant effort was not leading to a flow of chances. They were usually met by strong Middlesbrough defending.

TOTTENHAM: Robinson, Chimbonda, Dawson, King, Lee, Lennon, Zokora, Huddlestone, Malbranque (Keane 81), Defoe (Tainio 89), Berbatov. Goals: Berbatov 47, Keane 84. Sent off: Zakora 87.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Xavier, Huth, Woodgate, Pogatetz, Taylor (Arca 45), Cattermole (Viduka 57), Boateng, Downing, Yakubu, Christie (Morrison 45). Goals: Huth 80. Booked: Huth, Pogatetz, Arca. Sent off: Boateng 87.

Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire)