Match report: Spurs 3-0 Crystal Palace

Striker Kanoute scored a hat-trick in the 3-0 FA Cup third round win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Pleat, who spoke to Kanoute on Friday to try to persuade him not to play for Mali, said: "He handled himself well and took his goals well.

"He is 26 and has his own views, but I will see what happens. Nothing has happened yet which is irretrievable.

"But the important thing is that we are through. Our banana skin was as slippery as anyone's up and down the country.

"Palace have been playing very well, but we got through with some very good attacking play," added Pleat.

The only black mark over Spurs' performance was the dismissal of Gus Poyet in the 79th minute.

Poyet moved to retaliate following a challenge which earned Palace's Dougie Freedman a yellow card.

But after the players had shaken hands, the referee sent Poyet off.

Pleat said: "I'm obviously disappointed. He didn't touch him, and Dougie Freedman acknowledged it straight away.

"Poyet did lean into him. Butting is a terrible thing - but he didn't butt him. I think it was the foul which aroused resentment.

"We will have a look at it. But it seems we will lose him for three weeks, and in our position we don't want to lose players."

Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie was also unhappy over the dismissal of Danny Butterfield - the victim of an apparent case of mistaken identity.

Butterfield was shown the red card by referee Andy D'Urso following a challenge by team-mate Jamie Smith which felled Tottenham substitute Bobby Zamora two minutes after Poyet went.

While protesting Butterfield's innocence, Dowie also claimed the challenge by Smith was not worthy of a dismissal anyway.

"He got the wrong man. I spoke to the player involved afterwards, and he played the ball. It wasn't a sending-off tackle," said Dowie.

"We will over-sanitise football if we get rid of challenges like that.

"Danny Butterfield went but he was nothing to do with it."