Keane gives Jol flying start

A potential embarrassment avoided, Martin Jol can now concentrate on resuscitating Tottenham Hotspur as a Premiership force after goals from Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe took the North London side into the last eight of the League Cup and handed the club's eighth manager in 10 years a winning start.

A potential embarrassment avoided, Martin Jol can now concentrate on resuscitating Tottenham Hotspur as a Premiership force after goals from Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe took the North London side into the last eight of the League Cup and handed the club's eighth manager in 10 years a winning start.

Jol knows he will soon face considerably tougher tasks than beating a Burnley side shorn of seven first-team regulars, but after the upheaval caused by Jacques Santini's acrimonious departure, the Dutchman can be more than satisfied at the accomplished way his side - that notably included Michael Carrick, studiously ignored by Santini - dismissed their Championship opponents despite an uncomfortable start.

Jol has promised to replace Santini's defensive pragmatism with a more attacking approach, but it was Burnley who demonstrated the greater flair and inventiveness in the opening exchanges with Robbie Blake twice conjuring openings that could have brought greater reward.

A cleverly timed sixth-minute run unpicked the visitors' offside trap and, with the Spurs defence desperately backtracking, the forward was unfortunate not to see his carefully weighted pass converted by the advancing Richard Duffy. Then, five minutes later, Blake's speed of thought allowed him to collect a quickly taken free-kick, turn, and drill a firm, left-foot drive disturbingly close to Paul Robinson's left-hand post.

Jol could have been forgiven for shifting uncomfortably in the opposition dug-out before Spurs slowly began to ease their way into the game with a Keane snapshot and a Noe Pamarot header offering evidence of the shift in the balance in the contest. The movement of Keane in particular was proving too much for Burnley's make-shift defence and ultimately led to the 31st-minute opener that would have brought a tangible sense of relief to the new Spurs coach. And to add to Jol's sense of satisfaction, the opening was created by the industrious Carrick who collected Keane's pass before manoeuvring himself into space on the right-hand flank and returning the ball perfectly into the path of the Irishman who finished with ease.

Burnley desperately needed to fashion an early response but were guilty of wasting two good openings when Duffy and Michael Duff failed to convert with close-range headers, and those missed opportunities were made to appear even more costly in the opening 13 minutes of the second half when Tottenham constructed two expertly taken goals to settle the tie.

Spurs' second came after a simple yet incisive breakaway started by the Swiss midfielder Reto Ziegler and continued by Defoe on the left before the England forward picked out Keane who again finished easily from close range in the 52nd minute.

And with Burnley clearly spent, the pair reversed roles when Defoe collected Keane's knock-down, shrugged off a challenge from Duff, and sent a dipping 25-yard drive beyond the helpless Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen.

Burnley (4 -5-1): Jensen; Roche, Cahill, Duff, Camara; Duffy, Hyde, Grant, Sanokho, Branch (Valois, 41; Pilkington, 82); Blake. Substitutes not used: O'Neil, Scott, Yates.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): Robinson; Pamarot (Ifil, 78), King, Naybet, Kelly; Mendes (Davies, 62), Carrick, Brown, Ziegler; Keane (Kanouté, 64), Defoe. Substitutes not used: Keller, Redknapp.

Referee: G.Poll