Jol remains defiant
Martin Jol believes Tottenham's spirited performance against Liverpool proves that his players are still right behind him.
Tottenham were denied a first league win at Anfield for 14 years when Fernando Torres salvaged a point for a below-par Liverpool side as a thrilling game ended 2-2 at Anfield an Sunday.
Robbie Keane scored either side of half time as Tottenham came from behind to take the lead after Andriy Voronin had opened the scoring for Liverpool.
Tottenham have now failed to win their last six league games with speculation about Jol's future in charge at White Hart Lane continuing.
Yet the Dutchman insisted his players are 100 per cent behind him after one of Tottenham's best performances since Jol took charge in November 2004.
"My team want to fight every game. They showed that we have a great spirit with this performance," Jol said.
Asked whether he expected his future to be resolved during the international break, Jol responded: "do not know about the future. I don't know because I'm not pulling the strings."
Jol leapt to the defence of Paul Robinson after the goalkeeper appeared to have committed an error leading up to Voronin's 13th minute goal.
Robinson, who is expected to feature in England's crucial Euro 2008 qualifier with Estonia next Saturday, went into the match under pressure after two mistakes in the 4-4 draw with Aston Villa last Monday.
He fumbled a free-kick by Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard which allowed Voronin to strike from inside the six-yard area.
"If you look at the replays of the goal again you will see that the free-kick got a deflection of Jermaine Jenas's knee," added Jol, who was without Darren Bent because the striker was suffering from a virus.
"I'm not concerned about Paul Robinson's form."
Despite failing to hang on to the lead, Jol said he was encouraged by his team's battling performance, although he admitted that a draw was a bad result for both clubs.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez was also forced to leap to the defence of one of his players.
Jamie Carragher looked a shadow of the player he was before suffering a rib injury earlier in the season but Benitez said he was not unduly concerned about the former England defender's form.
Benitez, however, could not hide his disappointment after seeing his defence leak two easy goals.
"Two mistakes changed the game," said Benitez.
"We had so many chances to win the game but I am sat here having to explain why we conceded two goals and couldn't score.
"If you analyse both goals it is clear that they were easy to defend. It's not normal for us to concede these kind of goals."
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