Two sent off as showboating Kanouté sinks Palace

Having dominated the build-up, Frédéric Kanouté did the decent thing and dominated this third-round FA Cup tie as well.

Having dominated the build-up, Frédéric Kanouté did the decent thing and dominated this third-round FA Cup tie as well.

A hat-trick, collected with an easy composure in the face of the sound and fury around him over his decision to play for Mali in the African Nations Cup, routinely subdued an overawed, overpowered Crystal Palace side. And to think there was even speculation, which the Spurs caretaker, David Pleat, suggested may have been fuelled by "agents", that Kanouté would be dropped - and sold - such was the anger of the Tottenham board.

Whether or not the decent thing for Kanouté is to stay and fight for a team free-falling through the Premiership is a moot point. It was made all the more raw by the deserved late dismissal of Gustavo Poyet for delivering a foolish, if hardly emphatic, Glasgow kiss - head-butt - to the Scottish striker Dougie Freedman. Another Spurs player therefore absented himself, this time through an inevitable three-match ban for violent conduct.

Referee Andy D'Urso evened it up - in an otherwise uneven contest - by mistakenly dismissing Danny Butterfield for a forceful tackle on Bobby Zamora, which was actually made by Jamie Smith. Such was Palace's woe even their cards went astray. "He played the ball," said a bewildered Palace manager, Iain Dowie, "and even then the referee apparently admitted he wasn't sure who made the tackle." An appeal is inevitable.

Pleat again found the wrong tone with respect to Kanouté's decision to pledge his troth to the country of his father's birth for at least three weeks. "I don't know where Mali is," he said after stating that Kanouté had "handled himself well. He was under a lot of pressure. He is 26. He is a man and he has his own views."

Unfortunately they obviously differ from Pleat's. Right or wrong, the timing has been unfortunate - five months into Kanouté's career at Spurs and with them in such a parlous state. Nevertheless in scoring so decisively, the hitherto French striker who is the club's top scorer confirmed the loss that will be felt if he does board a plane on Friday and fly to Tunisia.

Robbie Keane, himself linked with an unlikely move to Birmingham City, confirmed it further on 53 minutes - five minutes after Kanouté had wrapped up his scoring - by ballooning the ball wildly over the bar when clear on goal. His erratic finishing was diametrically opposed to his strike partner's.

Spurs came into this hazardous encounter - "a banana skin as slippery as anywhere" as Pleat colourfully put it - on the back of five straight defeats and against a re-energised side with a history of doing well on this ground (unbeaten in their previous six visits).

Palace began with prickly intent. However both central midfielders were booked for late tackles inside 13 minutes as they tried to pressure their fragile hosts. That effort was rapidly deflated with two goals from Kanouté within the next seven minutes.

For the first he picked up a flick from Poyet and, from the angle, drove the ball high inside the near post of the stand-in goalkeeper Cédric Berthelin, who appeared disorientated. Then Stéphane Dalmat - who clearly had the beating of Gary Borrowdale - slipped into the area and deftly beat Tony Popovic before squaring for Kanouté to sidefoot in from four yards.

Palace appeared callow. Keane's eagerness to drop into midfield - often stifled in the Premiership - went untracked while the 18-year-old Ben Watson was cowed by his early caution and, further forward, 15-goal Andy Johnson was simply disenfranchised and disappeared at half-time with a hamstring strain. Only Wayne Routledge appeared uninhibited.

Two minutes after the re-start Spurs killed the tie. Ledley King scooped the ball into the area to find Kanouté, who simply chested it down and passed low into the net. The criminality at the heart of the Palace defence was - again - incontrovertible with Popovic and his partner Kit Symons exposed. King's pass was, after all, nothing more than a simple loft forward.

Spurs were showboating now with party tricks from Kanouté and Dalmat. Time to introduce Simon Davies - for the first time since September, due to a hip injury - to play in the centre of midfield, a position Pleat is keen to try him in. His return, however, will not dull the loss of Kanouté.

Tottenham Hotspur 3 Crystal Palace 0
Kanouté 15, 20, 48

Half-time: 2-0 Attendance: 32,340