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Ledley King admits that Tottenham need to examine their inability to hold onto 2-0 half-time leads, after turning a seemingly comfortable victory into a fraught affair once again at Craven Cottage yesterday.

An own goal from Chris Baird and an Aaron Lennon solo effort gave Spurs a commanding two-goal advantage at the break, but Martin Jol’s Fulham halved the deficit in the second half to put an apparently routine win into serious doubt.

It was the third time this season that the Lilywhites had faced that identical scenario. And, although they went on to claim a highly flattering 3-1 win on the Thames, King concedes that questions will need to be asked after the international break.

“We’ve been in that position a few times this season after we’ve got ourselves a good lead at half-time,” said the Tottenham captain.

“Sometimes half-time can come at the wrong time. You know that the other team’s going to change things, and they’re going to come at you.

“Fulham did that, just like last week against QPR, when we had the same thing. Wigan away, it happened then as well.

“We didn’t play well at all well in the second half [against Fulham] and we’re going to have to look at that.

“We need to look at what we can do at the beginning of the second half when we’ve got a lead like that, because that’s happened three times now.

“If we get the third goal then the game’s more or less dead, but the other teams have managed to get that goal and it lifts the crowd and then they’re on us.

“But at the same time the good thing is that we’re still winning the games, and that’s certainly a good sign for us. We’ve won all three of them so it’s not too bad.”

While King concedes that Tottenham were very fortunate to emerge victorious from last night’s London derby, he believes that Spurs’ latest win provides further evidence that the Lilywhites are heading in the right direction.

“We got lucky at times, our keeper’s pulled off a few good saves for us and we’ve just had to dig deep and try to get the points, and we’ve done that,” he said.

“What they say about the old Spurs sides is that we played good football, and when it got tough we weren’t there to stick it out. That’s not really the case now - and it’s not just been this season.

“We’re better away from home now, we’re managing to grind out results and it’s seven wins in eight games now.

“You have to be a good side to do that, you have to do well in all forms of the game. You have to defend and score goals, and we’re doing that.”

Yup, crap performence and still got 3 points. Well said Ledley. Nice . . . . .

The thing is 2 years ago we would have lost, one year ago possibly would have got a draw, now we're taking 3 points from these games. Gotta be better.