Tottenham star Jermain Defoe reveals change of boots led to five goal super show

Harry Redknapp hailed sharp-shooter Jermain Defoe after his sensational five-goal haul.

The England marksman was in devastating form as Tottenham routed hapless Wigan at White Hart Lane.

Spurs were only leading 1-0 at the break through Peter Crouch, but they ran riot in the second half with Defoe’s five-timer and further goals from Aaron Lennon, substitute David Bentley and Niko Kranjcar.

“It's like a dream, it's brilliant,” said Defoe. “I looked over at the boss and I think he was in shock!”

Defoe also revealed that coach Clive Allen had persuaded him to change his green boots before the game. He said: “Clive said I couldn't wear them, so I changed them. They were pinkish silver ones in the end, and I go and score five.”

Spurs boss Redknapp said: “Jermain was sharp around the box, a real handful.

“He is a great goalscorer, an amazing finisher. He has been doing that since he was 14 at West Ham. I used to watch him as a kid and every Saturday he would bang goals in.”

Redknapp showed remarkable restraint as Spurs went goal crazy, but he said that was out of respect to Wigan’s crest-fallen manager Roberto Martinez.

“I didn’t want to be jumping up and down,” said Redknapp. “I know what their manager was going through. It’s difficult. As happy as I am I can imagine what he was going through. I wasn’t going to run up and down the touchline.”

The victory moves Spurs up to fourth in the table, level on points with arch-rivals Arsenal.

Redknapp added: “Last year our home record was incredible. We only lost once here, to Everton, after I came. We are much better away from home now, but we are much stronger.

“We have strikers who can score goals now and we have Palacios in the middle of the field.”

Wigan boss Martinez is hoping his side do not carry the scars from this massive defeat.

“The damage of this won't be carried into the next game," he insisted. "We have enough characters in the dressing room and we need to react in the right way. I've never been involved in a game like this.

“From the mental point of view, we'll get stronger from this. This is a unique situation but we can use it in a positive way in terms of learning from these situations. We've never experienced this before.

“The biggest disappointment was how we started the first half, then the naivety that saw them scoring in the first 10 minutes of the second half.”

Remarkably, Redknapp's first game as boss of Bournemouth ended in a 9-0 defeat at Lincoln 26 years ago.

“That was about 1200 games ago,” he recalled. “Every other game in the country was off and the pitch was like an ice rink. They came out with rubber boots, we had long studs and we were falling all over the place.”

Tottenham 9-1 Wigan - gallery and video of all nine goals