COPP TO BOTTOM

And boss Steve Coppell has to be the one to blame as his side slipped into the bottom three.

Next Sunday, Coppell will be judged on whether or not he has kept Reading up and not the fines meted out to two fringe first-team players after they refused to play for the reserves.

And it's not looking good. In Coppell's own words "it's s*** or bust" at Derby, where even a win might not be good enough.

Loyal

The bare facts are that 9hrs 11mins after Reading's last goal, Coppell is still waiting for another one.

He admits to being told clearly by Sam Allardyce at the beginning of the season that the secret to staying up is to spend, spend, spend.

True to the man he is, Coppell instead stayed loyal to the lads who had given him two fantastic years, first in the Championship and last season at the top level.

He has also been reluctant to ring the changes to put under-performing favourites under the cosh for their places.

And yesterday, when they really, really had to get stuck into Spurs, too many players went missing when crunching tackles and a gung-ho attitude should have been taken as read.

Coppell is such a nice bloke, a genuine master of under-statement who prefers his team to do the talking.

But they barely rose a whimper here to send another packed stadium home in total silence.

Keane's 16th-minute winner, superbly fashioned by Darren Bent, ended an opening Tottenham salvo that left the Royals flat-footed and wilting from the off.

They never got to grips with Irish ace Keane playing at the head of a diamond formation.

And the home side were so lucky that the excellent Steed Malbranque wrongly had a 24th-minute effort wiped out for offside.

Reading only really got going when desperation set in and Spurs keeper Radek Cerny, preferred to Paul Robinson, made two fine saves from Leroy Lita and Liam Rosenior in the final four minutes.

Praise Coppell for employing three strikers in Lita, Dave Kiston and Kevin Doyle — but his team weren't at the races.

Quite what might have happened had Dimitar Berbatov not cried off with groin trouble can only be left to the imagination.

Reading, in their hour of need, took a right pasting with Malbranque also hitting the side-netting, Bent slamming a beauty against the foot of a post and only a last-ditch Rosenior tackle on ringmaster Keane saving another certain goal.

In between, Tottenham so often strung a dozen passes together, it was almost embarrassing.

Coppell admitted: "In different circumstances it would have been nice to watch the first 20 minutes.

"At half-time I told them the effort was incredible — it was like they were trying to plait spaghetti. They worked so hard to stay in the game. We just needed to restructure.

"Now it's s*** or bust and we have to get a result next week to give ourselves a chance. It's down to us to deliver.

"The manager always gets the blame if things go wrong and my shoulders are broad enough so I will take anything that's going.

"Since the chairman has come here he's built a self-financing club. That ultimately might be our downfall.

"I took a calculated risk not to spend much in the summer and January. If it doesn't work out then it's my fault."

The only chink of light for Reading is that they face dreadful Derby, who are long relegated.

Tame

But even Coppell admitted: "It's their last game in the Premier League and they will want to put on a show."

In contrast to all this gloom and doom, Keane's magical display was everything Tottenham needed to stir themselves after four tame draws.

Boss Juande Ramos said: "Robbie was magnificent. We rely on him a lot and today he got the goal and played in a position that made Reading uncomfortable.

"We played a good game, there were a lot of chances and we dominated play. We should have finished the game off."

So it's all smile for Spurs. But should Reading score, let alone win at Pride Park, it will be like one of us finding a lost tenner in an old overcoat pocket purely by mistake.

Things are that bad.