Tottenham 3-1 Blackburn: The Sunday Mirror match report

Super Pav helped Spurs take another step towards the Holy Grail – and left Harry Redknapp convinced his reborn hitman’s goals can secure that coveted Champions League spot.

Two months ago, Roman Pavlyuchenko looked on his way out of White Hart Lane.

The languid Russia striker was strongly criticised by Redknapp for his poor work ethic, with Harry revealing that Zenit St Petersburg had “been in” for the 28-year-old.

But Pavlyuchenko’s brace, yesterday lunchtime, following Jermain Defoe’s 26th strike of the season, puts the north Londoners on course for their first ever appearance in the world’s top club competition.

“Super Pav” is now a popular chant at the ground – and the revived hitman has also become a favourite with his manager.

“If he keeps on scoring until the end of the season we’ve got every chance of finishing fourth,” said Redknapp. “He’s working hard now, putting a shift in. He’s knuckled down. That’s all I’ve ever asked him to do.

“The transfer window came and went and he realised he was not going back to Russia. The feeling I got from agents was that was what he wanted. But now he’s given me a nice problem.”

Pavlyuchenko began the game brightly but missed two good openings with Gareth Bale, in particular, firing good balls into the box.

Bale then had two penalty appeals turned down and Blackburn, too, were aggrieved when referee Howard Webb turned down a couple of appeals and a perfectly good Nikola Kalinic strike.

Defoe finally broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time. Luka Modric’s corner was headed on by his compatriot Vedran Corluka and the England predator pounced at the near post to make it 1-0.

Pavlyuchenko then got in on the act after superb link-up play between Modric and Defoe. Defoe laid the ball off to his strike partner who rattled the ball past Jason Brown – who had replaced the injured Paul Robinson. Rovers then gave Spurs a fright as Christopher Samba rose above Michael Dawson to head home Morten Gamst Pedersen’s corner.

But Pav settled Tottenham’s nerves with a tap-in after Bale crossed from the left.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce said: “Our poor defending was the main reason we lost the game. Our defending for the third goal in particular was diabolical.

“But at the same time the referee’s decisions swung the game against us. Corluka fouled David Dunn in the area and Bassong was all over Samba. And Kalinic’s goal was wrongly ruled out.”