Newcastle 1-2 Tottenham

Holders Tottenham reached the last 16 of the Carling Cup on Wednesday night to give their season a boost while ensuring managerless Newcastle reached a new low.

In front of a crowd of just 19,743 at St James' Park, both teams showed their fragile confidence in a poor first-half.

While Spurs did not offer much, they did manage take a 62nd minute lead when unmarked Roman Pavlyuchenko headed in.

Four minutes later Jamie O'Hara capitalised on a Newcastle error while Michael Owen scored in vain late on.

Spurs and Newcastle, lying bottom and second-bottom of the Premier League table respectively, both stressed the importance of the game in terms of the impact it could have in kick-starting their season.

Aside from a shuddering Fabricio Coloccini challenge on Spurs' £14m Russian striker Pavlyuchenko, it was a timid start all round and the home side looked especially nervous at the back.

With the game lacking spark or pattern the first sniff of a chance came when Charles N'Zogbia found space but his shot was easily saved by Spurs keeper Huerelho Gomes.

The increasingly fierce tackles were evidence of the fragile confidence of both sides as they could not produce any quality.

In the 32nd minute Pavlyuchenko should have done better when he headed just wide from a corner while at the other end Michael Owen, who had scored 10 goals in his last 14 appearances, had nothing to feed on.

The rough and tumble escalated just before half-time when Pavlyuchenko issued a forearm smash on Coloccini as they both went for a high ball which left the Argentinean bleeding from his nose.

Newcastle nearly took the lead just after the break when a clever Obafemi Martins flick released the on-rushing Damien Duff into the ball.

The Irish winger toe-poked the ball past Gomes towards the goal but just as it appeared to be crossing the line just inside the post Jonathan Woodgate slid in to clear for a corner.

Gareth Bale was soon taken off and replaced by Mexican Giovanni dos Santos by Spurs boss Juande Ramos.

He soon had an impact when, after being fed by Didier Zakora on the left, he jinked into the box to cross for Pavlyuchenko who nearly bundled the ball home.

Nicky Butt did manage to slip a pass through Spurs' back-line for Owen to show his class as he rolled Woodgate and got a shot off which Gomes saved well.

But Spurs took the lead after 61 minutes when Aaron Lennon lofted in a perfect cross for the unmarked Pavlyuchenko to head home his first goal for the club.

The game was effectively over minutes later when Coloccini ignored the golden rule of defending and passed the ball square across the front of his penalty area towards Taylor.

He then tried to let the ball run across his body and away from danger but O'Hara intercepted and, with plenty of time and space, the Spurs midfielder slotted the ball clinically past Given.

One minute before time Geremi broke free down the right to whip in a dangerous cross and, after Gomes spilled the ball, Owen put the rebound powerfully into the roof of the net as dismayed Newcastle fans piled out of the ground.