Udinese 2 Spurs 0 THE pressure continues to mount for Tottenham and their beleaguered boss Juande Ramos, writes Patrick Mooney. Spurs, four points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, lost their opening Group D match in the Uefa Cup to Udinese in I

Udinese 2 Spurs 0

THE pressure continues to mount for Tottenham and their beleaguered boss Juande Ramos, writes Patrick Mooney.

Spurs, four points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League, lost their opening Group D match in the Uefa Cup to Udinese in Italy last night.

Despite a promising first 20 minutes by the Lilywhites, who recalled skipper Ledley King, the Italians were gifted the opening goal by goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.

The Brazilian keeper failed to clear a back pass, then fouled Fabio Quagliarella in the penalty area and Antonio Di Natale scored from the resulting spot-kick.

Things got worse for Tottenham in the second half when midfielder Jamie O'Hara was sent off after being booked twice inside a minute for fouls on Udinese's Alexis Sanchez.

Spurs then had Gomes to thank to keeping the score at 1-0 with a couple of top-class saves, the first from close range to deny Maurizio Domizzi and the second to acrobatically keep out a Di Natale lob.

Yet, despite being down to 10 men, Tottenham almost grabbed an equaliser when Darren Bent forced keeper Samir Handanovic to make an excellent tip-over save following a strong run and cross from substitute Giovani.

But almost immediately Udinese broke away and Simone Pepe sealed the points for the Italians with a second goal four minutes from time.

Spurs: Gomes, Hutton, King, Woodgate (Giovani), Assou-Ekotto (Modric), Lennon, Zokora, Jenas, O'Hara, Bale, Bent. Subs: Cesar, Dawson, Gilberto, Gunter, Campbell.