Ramos plays down Gilberto howler

The Brazil international suffered a nightmare Spurs debut and was at fault for Jefferson Farfan's winner, meaning Ramos' side need to overturn the 1-0 deficit next week in Holland to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup - he was also booked before getting taken off at half-time.

"I didn't substitute him because he made a mistake at the back, it was because he has had a calf injury and has not got the rhythm," said head coach Ramos. "He needs to play many more games, that's why I took him off."

He added: "Every football player makes mistakes. What we have to do now is support him and help him to try to recover his best level. We're not going to blame him for the defeat."

Ramos has won the competition with Sevilla in the last two seasons but his chances of a hat-trick are now in the balance.

To make matters worse, Jermaine Jenas twisted his ankle and could face a spell on the sidelines.

After winning the Carling Cup by defeating Chelsea, Spurs have been brought back down to earth by Birmingham and now the Dutch champions, with last night's defeat coming despite picking his strongest starting XI.

"It's true we had our best starting XI but we still under-performed," Ramos said. "I've been quite disappointed with that. We had our best players on the pitch but PSV were the better team. We have to accept the result.

"You could say it was a reality check, in the matches against Birmingham and PSV we have not played as well as we could have.

"We played well against Chelsea but we have lowered our tempo in the last two matches."