Sunderland's chances of avoiding relegation to the Championship were dealt a blow as Tottenham ran out 5-1 winners against the Black Cats at White Hart Lane.
There will be a time when Tim Sherwood looks back on his spell as Tottenham manager and wonders what could have been.
This is a plum job, one of the biggest European football, and yet he has just been passing through. It is a great shame.
Another young English coach will leave the game soon and yet he knows he has made too many mistakes as Tottenham’s manager.
This victory, no matter how emphatic, is a sticking plaster before surgery starts on this squad in the summer. It will be a long and painful process.
Even with a win thanks to goals from Emmanuel Adebayor, the lively Harry Kane, the outstanding Christian Eriksen and Gylfi Sigurdsson, there is something rotten at this club.
It will take more than a man with a name as big, perhaps, as Louis van Gaal to put it right.
Back of the net: Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor (left) bundles the ball in to make it 1-1
Pick that out: Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone (right) can only watch as Adebayor's effort nestles into the bottom corner
Main man: Adebayor runs off to celebrate his equaliser in front of the home fans
Looking up: Adebayor looks to the heavens after scoring his ninth Premier League goal of the season
Magic moment: Tottenham striker Harry Kane (centre) steers home his side's second goal
Neat finish: Kane's effort whizzes beyond Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone (right)
Centre of attention: Kane celebrates putting Spurs 2-1 in front in the 59th minute
Down and out: Sunderland duo Wes Brown and Mannone are left on the ground as Kane wheels away
Match Facts
Tottenham (4-4-2): Lloris 6; Naughton 5.5, Chiriches 4, Kaboul 5, Rose 5.5; Lennon 6 (Townsend 84), Chadli 6 (Sigurdsson 82), Paulinho 6 (Veljkovic 88), Eriksen 7.5; Adebayor 7, Kane 7.
Subs not used: Friedel, Fryers, Bentaleb, Sandro
Goals: Adebayor (2), Kane, Eriksen, Sigurdsson
Manager: Tim Sherwood 7
Sunderland (5-3-1-1): Mannone 6; Bardsley 5, Brown 4, Cuellar 5 (Gardner 72), Vergini 5, Alonso 5; Ki 5, Bridcutt 5.5, Cattermole 7 (Scocco 72); Johnson 7; Borini 5.
Subs not used: Larsson, Wickham, Colback, O'Shea, Ustari.
Booked: Alonso, Cattermole
Goals: Cattermole
Manager: Gus Poyet 5
Referee: Lee Mason 6
MOTM: Eriksen
Attendance: 34,410
*Match ratings by Neil Ashton at White Hart Lane
They were a goal down after 18 minutes to a gift that was as generous as they come. At that point it felt like Spurs were done for the season.
In the technical area, Sherwood barely flinched when Lee Cattermole capitalised on an dreadful error by Vlad Chiriches.
The Romania defender inexplicably played the ball across his own penalty area after a mix-up with Hugo Lloris. It sped towards Cattermole on the edge of the area and he clipped it first-time beyond the Tottenham goalkeeper as he scrambled back across his goal.
To be fair, it had been coming on a night when the crowd were restless and unresponsive again after Sherwood made it known that he is walking the plank.
In his defence, he is not the first to do so. This was his 23rd game in charge and he has only five more to go. Then he will be done.
The players know a new manager is on the way and there is nobody to impress until the great man arrives. They couldn’t really give a fig.
Whatever these players think of Sherwood — and it’s not a lot, judging by the jungle drums — they have a responsibility to this great club.
Around 36,000 fill this stadium for every home game and last week chairman Daniel Levy was bragging about a waiting list of 47,000.
Unstoppable: Christian Eriksen's shot takes a deflection on its way into the back of the net
Mobbed: Adebayor grabs hold of Eriksen after the Danish international's goal
Too easy: Adebayor slots Tottenham's fourth goal into an empty net after a mistake by Mannone
Respect: Spurs boss Tim Sherwood (right) returns Adebayor's trademark salute celebration after the striker's second goal
Icing on the cake: Substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson (centre) rams home his side's fifth goal of the night
SUNDERLAND FIXTURES
Everton (H), April 12
Manchester City (A), April 16
Chelsea (A), April 20
Cardiff (H), April 27
Manchester United (A), May 3
West Brom (H), May 7
Swansea (H), May 11
In exchange for being supported by fans paying £1,000 for season tickets, the deal is to leave the shirt soaking wet and sweat-stained when you throw it on to the dressing room floor at the end of the game. But if those fans took a moment to name the willing workers, they would be hard-pressed to name many.
Levy is well-intentioned and yet this magnificent club is becoming an embarrassment. They are better than this, or at least they should be. The soul is being ripped out of White Hart Lane with each managerial change and yet this should be one of the greatest place on earth at which to manage. Not any more.
Tottenham’s equaliser, bundled home by Adebayor from Eriksen’s nicely floated ball across the area, was greeted with the sort of applause a team usually gets when they are 5-0 down — sympathetic and half-hearted; just about all they deserve.
Ouch: Kane receives treatment for a head injury after a clash with Sunderland's Wes Brown
Under pressure: Spurs boss Tim Sherwood peers towards the pitch prior to kick off
Focused: Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole side-foots his team into the lead from long-range
Passion: Cattermole (left) wheels away to celebrate his first half goal
Perfect start: Cattermole is congratulated on his goal by team-mate Fabio Borini (right)
Rainy day: Players from both sides get soaked as they wait for a Tottenham corner
On the run: Spurs midfielder Nacer Chadli (centre) tries to get away from Sunderland's Ki Sung-Yueng (left)
Sunderland manager Gus Poyet, who had screamed ‘liar, the man’s a liar’ at referee Lee Mason towards the end of the first half, had a four-letter tantrum as he headed down the tunnel at the break.
It was inexplicable as his team had done all right, save for the dreadful defending that led to Adebayor’s equaliser.
Poyet is desperate to keep Sunderland in the Premier League, but time is running out and fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester United — two teams they beat on the way to the Capital One Cup final — are not quite as appetising in the league.
That is task ahead, to somehow galvanise Sunderland in their remaining seven games. It doesn’t look likely.
Sunderland escaped a decent penalty appeal early in the second half when Kane was clipped by Carlos Cuellar. If Jon Flanagan’s collision with Adrian at Upton Park on Sunday was a penalty, then so was this. It was a poor decision by Mason.
Surrounded: Sunderland winger Adam Johnson (centre) pokes the ball away under pressure from Spurs midfielder Sandro (left)
Going nowhere: Christian Eriksen (centre) is brought down by a tackle from Santiago Vergini (right)
All smiles: Managers Gus Poyet (left) and Sherwood (right) greet each other on the touchline
Going down: Kane takes a fall inside Sunderland's box but no penalty was awarded
Still they went ahead in the 59th minute when Eriksen, easily the best player on the field for either team, sent in another teasing cross from the left.
Sunderland’s static defence failed to respond and young Kane sent the ball spinning beyond Vito Mannone.
Eriksen got the goal his game deserved when he beat Mannone with a drilled effort from long range in the 78th minute. His strike gave Tottenham a cushion before Adebayor, looking suspiciously offside, tapped in following a shot from Kane. Sigurdsson made it five from close range in added time after Mannone fluffed a punch.
Desperate: Aaron Lennon (right) unsuccessfully attempts to throw himself in the way of Borini's shot at goal
Not happy: Poyet argues with fourth official Mike Dean after a decision goes against his side
This was better, brisk, enterprising football from a team that had looked likely to cave in after Cattermole’s early goal.
Victory took them above the champions Manchester United and into sixth place in the table.
But for Levy, that’s nowhere near good enough.
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