Sam salutes super Samba

The central defender was pushed into the attack into the second half and responded by setting up the equaliser for Benni McCarthy in the 81st minute. Then Andre Ooijer grabbed the winner three minutes from time when goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes failed to deal with a corner from El-Hadji Diouf.

"Injuries to Morten Gamst Pederson and Jason Roberts meant we had to put Chris Samba up front," said Allardyce. "It paid off, though, for us. He was excellent and upset two good centre-halves."

It was just the boost Blackburn were looking in their battle to beat the drop.

They had to dig deep after Robbie Keane opened the scoring for Tottenham from the penalty spot in the 29th minute.

Gael Givet was punished for an apparent hand-ball after Aaron Lennon had delivered the cross.

However the game turned in the 79th minute when Wilson Palacios was sent off after collecting two yellow cards, both for challenges on David Dunn.

"It was not our best performance, I know that. But our battling qualities, our determination to go right to the end got us the victory," he added.

"We took full advantage of them going down to 10 men. Having missed a few chances, I was worried we might not score.

"When Tottenham scored it killed the lads a little bit. But our equaliser put them on the back foot and we sustained the pressure."