MIKE McKINLEY: Nice to enjoy an uncomplicated victory, for a change

For a team as adept as Spurs at finding a banana skin it was very nice to go to poor old Derby and actually bring back the points in a nice, uncomplicated and relatively panic-free manner. We might have taken a while to get going, but by the end our supe

For a team as adept as Spurs at finding a banana skin it was very nice to go to poor old Derby and actually bring back the points in a nice, uncomplicated and relatively panic-free manner.

We might have taken a while to get going, but by the end our superior class had shown and we'd recorded our biggest away league win this century.

That it still seemed to need the introduction of Dimitar Berbatov to push us up a gear is a slight worry, and if Darren Bent is going to take time to find form and fitness that will place plenty of pressure on the blessed Berba and the ever prolific Keano in these post-Defoe months.

Hopefully, they can continue to fire, and Bent can get back to the form that made him our record signing.

With no FA Cup game, there's a good chunk of time for Juande to work his magic on the team ahead of the cup final, with just the small matter of two Uefa Cup ties interrupting his plotting of Chelsea's downfall.

The Czechs gave us a reasonable workout last year after our long European absence, without ever really looking likely to upset us over the two legs.

Hopefully, this year we'll see more of the same, with the dream scenario obviously being a comfortable time at the Lane without overtaxing the lads we expect to see at Wembley.

I can't see us taking the competition lightly, however, with Ramos's track record, and I'm sure he'll have half an eye on making it a hat-trick of wins.

With his first Spurs cup final just around the corner, I'll bet it won't be too long before we're seeing another.