Tottenham 2
Wisla Krakow 1

It will do little for the fragile confidence of Tottenham's players when they learn their manager believes there is not "much difference" between their ability and that of Wisla Krakow.

No matter that Spurs spent almost £70million on new talent this summer, while the 11 players who started for Wisla at White Hart Lane last night have a collective transfer value of about £9m - Juande Ramos reckons there is nothing to choose between them.

The painful truth for Ledley King and Co, however, is Ramos's assessment of this UEFA Cup first round, first-leg tie was spot on. After overseeing Spurs' worst start to a League season for 34 years, Ramos badly needed a convincing victory to ease the mounting pressure on himself and his players.

Worryingly for the Spaniard, he got neither, and Spurs have much work to do in Poland in two weeks' time if they are to progress.

The impressive David Bentley - recalled to the starting line-up along with King and Giovani dos Santos - curled his first goal for Spurs in the 33rd minute to break the ice. But just 60 seconds later, Ramos's defenders froze, allowing Tomas Jirsak to complete a neat move by clipping the ball over Heurelho Gomes from close range.

King was at fault for that goal and the Spurs captain endured a mistake-ridden evening, where he looked sluggish.

But the arrival of Fraizer Campbell, making his debut after his loan move from Manchester United, as a secondhalf substitute swung the match in Spurs' favour, as the striker created the winning goal for Darren Bent 17 minutes from full-time.

Ramos acknowledged that Campbell had been "magnificent", but was disappointed with the result. He said: "I wanted to have more than a one-goal advantage. The goal gives us a little bit of an edge, which will be important, as it will be a difficult game in Poland.

"Wisla are a team with fantastic pedigree who play at a fantastic level, so I don't think there is much difference, really, between us."

After conducting the pre-match press conference in English - the first time he has done so in the language - Ramos decided to offer his thoughts in his native Spanish after the game.

It was notable, also, that it was assistant manager Gus Poyet, rather than Ramos, who was giving the instructions to substitutes Campbell, Jamie O'Hara and Benoit Assou-Ekotto before their introduction.

Wisla could easily have secured a draw. Radoslaw Sobolewski twice shot just wide from distance, Gomes saved superbly from Mauro Cantoro, and substitute Andrzej Niedzielan was denied an 86th-minute equaliser only by a lunge from Jonathan Woodgate.

It is fair to say that Campbell's arrival at Spurs, as part of the deal that took Dimitar Berbatov to United for £30.75m, did not generate wild excitement in north London. Campbell has just one Premier League appearance to his name, yet looked far more at home during his 33 minutes on the pitch than £14m signing Roman Pavlyuchenko did in Monday's 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa.

The 21-year-old has real pace and an excellent attitude, while his deft control and perfectly-flighted chip for Bent to head the winner showed true quality.

But captain King admitted Spurs were struggling to regain their self-belief despite last night's win.

He said: "The confidence is not as high as it should be. It is a difficult time for us at the moment and we are the only ones who can get ourselves out of here. Wisla's football was very good."

And a difficult time for Spurs was not helped when Bent had his 56th-minute strike wrongly disallowed for offside.

Willing as he is, Bent is not in the same class as Robbie Keane or Berbatov.

Ramos must hope Campbell maintains his promising start and that Pavlyuchenko finds his feet quickly, otherwise Spurs face a barren time over the winter.