The West Bromwich Albion coach travelling back to the West Midlands from north London on Monday night cannot have been the happiest place to be.

Baggies manager Bryan Robson's crestfallen face told its own story when Tottenham Hotspur were handed victory on a plate in the 89th minute.

If the stinging words delivered by Robson in the White Hart Lane press room after the match were the same ones he used in the visitors' dressing-room, it was no wonder the Albion players were left so visibly smarting when they picked their way back on to the coach.

But there is a fierce defiance among the players to try to keep smiling and not let nightmare moments like goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak's late clanger wreck this second successive bid for Premier-ship survival.

Last season, Albion's 'Great Escape' mission was made all the harder by a lack of goals at one end and too high a proliferation of mistakes at the other. This latest rescue bid looks like proving no different.

Their latest tight 2-1 defeat to one of the Premiership's top four was another classic example of one player's nerve failing him when it mattered most.

Even when Robbie Keane's first goal had cancelled out stand-in skipper Curtis Davies's opener, Albion wasted chances to get back in front. Their failure to add a second was highlighted when Kuszczak's clumsy late error allowed Keane the chance to win the game from the penalty spot.

At least Albion once again showed, with the quality of their overall performance, that they can compete with the top flight's best but Davies said: "I think we'd all rather have stinkers and nick a 1-0 win with an own goal.

"Things just aren't happen-ing for us and it's very frustrating. We were 1-0 up against a top-four side like Tottenham who are going for the Champions' League and we weren't really in that much danger.

"We'd expected them to put three up front in the second half, like they did at our place but, even though we kept them reasonably quiet, they've managed to get a goal, which was a good finish but poor by us. And then we've let them nick it at the end.

"Tomasz took a touch when maybe he didn't need to and allowed Jermain Defoe to block his clearance and, at the end of the day, we can't afford to keep doing things like that and gifting goals.

"If we make a mistake, the keeper is there to cover us, but if he makes a mistake there is no-one to cover him. It's harsh but he has taken full responsibility."

One of the positives to take from Albion's performance was the general solidity of the centre-half partnership forged over the last three games between young Davies and old head Steve Watson. In fact, with Davies scoring only his second goal for the club and Watson twice getting forward to test England goal-keeper Paul Robinson, they were also two of Albion's most attacking players.

"It's crazy because we were playing well," Watson said. "We knew we'd have a tough task in the second half and that Spurs would put us under pressure, but we were passing the ball around and having chances ourselves.

"Even at 1-1, with that amount of time left in the game, it would have been a huge point for us but we gave the goal away and that was a huge kick in the teeth. The defeat hurts but we can't feel sorry for ourselves, we have Liverpool on Saturday and we just have to be positive and get on with it."