There was no fairytale start to Harry Redknapp's second reign at struggling Portsmouth, two goals in the final five minutes from Tottenham's Ahmed Mido and Jermaine Defoe securing the London club a 3-1 win on Monday.
Portsmouth were under the cosh for most of the match but a stunning speculative volley by Tresor Lomana Lua Lua handed the south coast club an early lead before Spurs equalised after the break through captain Ledley King.
Mido, with a penalty, and Defoe - a former Redknapp protege at West Ham - delivered the hammer blows to consign Portsmouth to a fifth successive loss and leave them second from bottom in the Premiership.
It was a third successive victory for Tottenham that sees them sitting pretty in fourth place in the table, a point below Manchester United and Liverpool, who both have a game in hand.
"They defended well," said Tottenham coach Martin Jol. "But we deserved to win."
Man-of-the-match Edgar Davids said the Spurs side had never doubted their ability to claw back Lua Lua's thunderbolt.
"We had to be aware of the counter-attack... but we knew what we had to do," the Dutch international said. "We were playing well and we were 1-0 down but we knew the goals would come."
Spurs striker Robbie Keane had the first opportunity of the game after two minutes, finding himself alone on goal but unable to muster anything more than a weak shot straight at goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown.
A nice lay-off from Dutchman Davids allowed Mido a shot on target after 11 minutes, but the Egyptian's effort also went the way of the keeper's arms.
But with the impressive Jermaine Jenas marshalling the Spurs midfield, Keane was again played through into the penalty box five minutes later, but Ashdown did well to palm away the Tallaght man's shot.
Against the run of play, Lua Lua scored his first goal since September, volleying home a speculative lobbed pass from Gary O'Neil beyond the reach of Spurs' stationary goalkeeper Paul Robinson from 30 metres.
The DR Congo international celebrated his third goal of the season and Portsmouth's first in more than 400 minutes of Premiership football with an impressive back-flipping gymnastic display in front of the hushed home fans.
Mido went close on the stoke of half-time but referee Uriah Rennie whistled for a high boot and Spurs were left rueing a first period during which they dominated possession but were unable to bury a hatful of chances on goal.
Spurs opened the second-half as they finished the first, the ever-dangerous Davids blasting a shot just wide and Ashdown pressed into service to punch away a cross from Mido's reaches.
King finally made the pressure pay in the 57th minute, the captain losing his marker Linvoy Primus and rising high to head home from a Michael Carrick corner.
Robinson came up with a fine one-handed save at the other end within a minute, the England keeper palming away a hard shot from Matthew Taylor.
Mido had another clear chance on goal 10 minutes later, but he headed a pinpoint cross from Wayne Routledge over the crossbar.
With 20 minutes to play, the game became a tough-tackling affair as Portsmouth tried to shut down Spurs in attack.
Andy Reid made an instant impact when he came on as a replacement for Routledge, himself a replacement, driving a free-kick into the wall.
The referee harshly ruled it came off O'Neil's arm and pointed to the penalty spot. Mido made no mistake although Ashdown dived the right way.
Defoe rubbed salt into the wounds, beating two defenders easily to hit a shot under Ashdown's body and leave Redknapp and his Portsmouth side with a mountain to climb to avoid relegation from the Premiership.
