LONDON: Erik Lamela scored his first goal in 17 injury-troubled months to help Tottenham Hotspur reach the fifth round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 victory over fourth-tier side Newport County on Wednesday.

The south Wales club held eight-time winners Spurs to a 1-1 draw at home 10 days ago but they were outclassed in the replay at Wembley Stadium.

Lamela’s close-range finish in the 34th minute came after an own goal from Dan Butler.

Tottenham will now travel to third-tier strugglers Rochdale for a last-16 tie on the weekend of February 17-18.

“It’s the FA Cup and it’s difficult,” Tottenham mana­ger Mauricio Poche­ttino told the BBC. “But I am happy because we wanted to be in the next round.

“It is important to keep going and winning games. We are going to be very busy in the Premier League, Champions Lea­gue and the FA Cup but we want to keep this run.”

The hosts were in cruise control after 26 minutes, however, when Moussa Sissoko’s drilled cross def­lec­ted cruelly off Butler’s heel and wrong-footed keeper Joe Day on its way into the Newport net.

The lead was doubled eight minutes later when Lamela scored his first Tottenham goal since September, 2016, the Argentine showing quick feet before slipping his finish through the legs of Day having been played in by Son Heung-min.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2018