GOAL-ACE Kevin Phillips must dramatically shoot Sunderland to Premiership safety to win his place in England's World Cup squad.
The odds now looked stacked against the 28-year-old striker after he flopped in front of England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson at White Hart Lane, missing two great chances he would normally have snapped up.
And the crucial misses saw Sunderland slip closer to the dropzone, hovering only five points above third-bottom Blackburn Rovers, who have a game in hand.
Ironically Sunderland produced some of their best football of the season against Spurs, and new striker Patrick Mboma was their best player as he scored an excellent goal on his full Premiership debut.
But Phillips - consistently linked to a move to Tottenham this season - failed to find his cutting edge and was outshone by veteran Spurs striker Teddy Sheringham, who produced a man-of-the-match performance which could not have failed to impress Eriksson, despite also missing a couple of chances.
But Phillips went into the game desperately needing to end a run of two games without a goal, and he was presented with the perfect opportunity in the opening minute, thanks to the exciting skills of Mboma, who opened up the unprepared Spurs defence with a brilliant piece of individual flair.
But Phillips, running on to a final pass from Jason McAteer, put his low right-foot drive just wide when a shot on target would most certainly have put the Wearsiders in front.
And Sunderland might have been rewarded for their non-stop efforts in the final minute of stoppage time if Phillips had produced a more clinical finish when, in a late scramble, he was freed by a flick-on from substitute Niall Quinn - but again his accuracy was missing as he scuffed his shot wide.
Not only was Phillips finishing lacking its usual effectiveness his all-round play was hardly up to scratch as Mboma stole the honours up front before his 72nd minute substitution with a back injury.
The former African Player of the Year looked eager to make his mark, smashing a powerful, first-time shot into the crowd and then placing a bullet-header just wide of the angle before scoring with an angled, left-foot shot after cleverly beating central defender Ledley King on the edge of the six-yard box.
And while Phillips looked sadly out of touch, Spurs skipper Sheringham did his prospects of being on the plane to Japan and South Korea this summer no harm at all with a fine, all-round performance, spoiled only by two goal-mouth misses which, in fact, were worse than the ones which fell to Phillips.
But the wily Sheringham made up for his mistakes with a great display of one-touch football which kept Spurs on the move and creating many more chances on the way to a double over opponents who had not won a top-flight game at White Hart Lane for over 32 years.
But it was a tactical gamble by Sunderland manager Peter Reid which back-fired that played a major part in Spurs taking the lead in the 30th minute.
Young Northern Ireland international George McCartney - a surprise choice at left back - received a deep gash down his left shin in the 28th minute and the Sunderland bench looked as though they we about to replace him with substitute Stefan Schwarz.
But Reid had hurried down from his seat in the stand, and ordered his team to play on with ten men as McCartney headed for the dressing room to have stitches in the cut.
And while he was off Spurs took the lead through Gustavo Poyet, who made up for an earlier bad miss by forcing the ball home from close range from a right-wing corner.
Reid admitted: "I do regret making the decision because George was delegated to mark Poyet so it was a double whammy if you like. It was just unfortunate - one of those things."
Spurs played some delightful attacking football and might have been two or three goals to the good - Thomas Sorensen made a notable save from a Poyet back-heel - before Mboma's work was rewarded with the equaliser in the third minute of first half stoppage time.
The goal inspired Sunderland after the break and goalkeeper Neil Sullivan had to make a spectacular one-handed save to keep out a powerful header from Kevin Kilbane in the 55th minute.
And there were confident appeals for a penalty in the 59th minute when Dean Richards seemed to drag Mboma down as the big striker showed great pace on a run to goal, but Hampshire Rob Styles waved play on.
Spurs, off the hook, snatched the match-winning goal in the 63rd minute when a mistake by fullback Bernt Haas allowed Christian Ziege to square a simple chance for Les Ferdinand to side-foot home.
Injuries to midfielder Claudio Reyna, again a good performer, and central defender Joachim Bjorklund, did not help the Sunderland cause, but they kept pushing hard and might have salvaged a point but for Phillips' last-ditch disappointment.
Reid summed up: "It's just not going for us at the moment.
"I think it was a penalty - Mboma said he got pulled down and certainly he's not going to fall down with his left peg - he's going to pull the trigger."
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