Tottenham Hotspur 5 Charlton Athletic 1

CHARLTON were brought crashing back down to earth with an emphatic defeat against Tottenham in the Barclays Premiership at White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon.

The euphoria that followed Tuesday’s 1-0 home victory over Blackburn quickly evaporated as the Addicks were again found wanting on their travels.

Charlton made their brightest start to an away game so far this season, but Tottenham came more into it as the first half wore on and took the lead on the half-hour mark.

Tom Huddlestone found Aaron Lennon on the edge of the box and he flicked the ball through to Dimitar Berbatov who fired a shot low into the corner of the net.

Two minutes later, the home side doubled their lead when Lennon’s cross from the left was cleared to just outside the box and Teemu Tainio drove in a shot that deflected past Addicks keeper Scott Carson.

The visitors brought themselves back into the game three minutes before the break when a cross from left by Andy Reid was turned into his own net by his former Nottingham Forest team-mate Michael Dawson.

Addicks boss Les Reed had no sooner brought on Dennis Rommedahl for Radostin Kishishev, in an attempt carve out an equaliser, than the Addicks found themselves two goals behind again.

Lennon’s cross from the right was headed back across goal by Berbatov and Steed Malbranque controlled the ball with his chest before striking it into the bottom left hand corner on 55 minutes.

Charlton’s problems mounted on 62 minutes when Bryan Hughes lost possession in midfield and the ball ran lose to former Addicks youngster Jermain Defoe who hit a rasping shot past Carson.

The visitors' misery was compounded by a fifth Spurs goal on 65 minutes. Berbabtov twisted and turned his way past Talal El Karkouri and Amady Faye on the left before beating Carson with a low shot.

Charlton: Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Diawara, Hreidarsson, Sam, Kishishev (Rommedahl 53), Faye, Hughes, Reid (Hasselbaink 67), D Bent.
Subs not used: Myhre, Fortune, Holland.