Despite a late fightback, Sunderland were made to pay for some early and late mistakes as Aaron Lennon and Robbie Keane's goals were enough for Spurs to pick up the win this afternoon.

Our man of the match against Pompey, Kieran Richardson missed out with a hamstring injury, as Roy Keane recalled Paul McShane in his place as Dean Whitehead moved back into midfield. Michael Chopra returned from injury to get a place on the bench, against the side whom he scored an injury time winner against on the opening day of the season.

Spurs took the lead with the first attack of the gamewhen Paul McShane's pass was intercepted by Jamie O'Hara, who then crossed it for Aaron Lennon to tap home following a helping flick on from Dimitar Berbatov. McShane nearly gave away a second goal when he was caught out by a through ball, only for Young-Pyo Lee to waste his chance.

Sunderland struggled to make any impact in the game, with our attacks being limited to long balls forward which went nowhere near Kenwyne Jones who - again - was up front by himself, while Anthony Stokes wasted a free kick on 15 minutes by blasting the ball wide from 30 yards out. Jermaine Jenas wasted a glorious chance to make it 2-0 on 21 minutes when his run onto Tom Huddlestone's long ball saw the former Mag hit a shot off the post instead, as Berbatov sent the rebound just wide as Sunderland went to pieces at the back.

Dwight Yorke saw a free kick pushed away by Radek Cerny, before Sunderland survived again when Lennon's cross found Berbatov, only for the Bulgarian striker to put his shot against the bar and out for a goal kick. Jermain Defoe saw his chipped shot poked over the bar by Craig Gordon on 35 minutes, shortly before the Scottish stopper had to get down low to deny Berbatov as our defence went missing yet again.

Roy Keane brought on Michael Chopra in place of Anthony Stokes before half time, with Stokes having been hauled off following a poor first half performance - and we nearly equalised shortly afterwards when Yorke's through ball found Kenwyne Jones, only for Michael Dawson to tackle the ball out for a corner, which was wasted as Nyron Nosworthy had to race back to clear away Spurs' counter attack. Paul McShane saw his header cleared off the like by Dawson as we ended the first half with a flourish following our switch to a 4-4-2 formation.

Kenwyne Jones had the ball in the back of the net shortly after the restart, but the goal was ruled out after Jones was judged to have been in an offside position. Moments later, a Daryl Murphy cross just evaded Michael Chopra and Liam Miller, shortly before Chopra got his fifth booking of the season - resulting in a one match ban that will see him miss the Birmingham game.

Paul McShane headed a free from from Murphy over the bar just after the hour mark as Sunderland kept slogging away to get back into the game. Dimitar Berbatov saw a shot deflected wide for a corner on 68 minutes, just before Tom Huddlestone saw a 35 yard free kick pushed away by Craig Gordon following a foul on Aaron Lennon.

Andy Cole replaced McShane for the final quarter of an hour as we tried to rescue a point from the game, with Danny Collins seeing a header cleared off the line by Cerny during another push forward. Berbatov had to unusually head the ball over the bar as he was performing defensive duties, denying Kenwyne Jones fron a corner, before Jones and Chopra saw shots cleared off the line within seconds of each other in the 84th minute. Dean Whitehead saw a cross headed away by Huddlestone on 86 minutes, before Jones saw his effort from Daryl Murphy's cross turned over by Cerny in the dying moments.

In the end though, our second half fightback came to nought, as we were well and truly made to pay for our early defensive mistake, and the result was put beyond doubt when Robbie Keane slotted away a goal - his 100th for Spurs - in injury time after hitting us on the break.

Sunderland did deserve a point for their spirited performance in the second half, but once again our failure to take a hatful of chances - most notably the several that Spurs cleared off the line - combined with our defensive frailties proved to be our weakness yet again.

Sunderland: Gordon, McShane (sub 75, Cole), Nosworthy, Evans, Collins, Whitehead, Yorke, Miller, Murphy, Stokes (sub 39, Chopra), Jones. Subs: Fulop, Harte, O'Donovan.

Spurs: Cerny, Lee, Stalteri (sub 79, Chimbonda), Jenas, Berbatov, Boateng, Defoe (sub 74, Keane) Dawson, Huddlestone, O'Hara (sub 55, Tainio), Lennon. Subs: Robinson, Rose.