Tottenham lose as Ramos watches on

LONDON, England -- Tottenham Hotspur's disastrous Premier League season continued a familiar pattern as new manager Juande Ramos saw them squander a lead yet again to slip to a 2-1 home defeat to fast-rising Blackburn Rovers.

The result left Tottenham firmly anchored in the bottom three with a single win and just seven points from 11 games, having started the season under Martin Jol with Champions League aspirations but now facing a relegation battle.

Ramos is rumored to be considering a move for striker Frederic Kanoute, who starred for him at Sevilla having only given sporadic evidence of his talents in his time at Tottenham.

But the careless way that Tottenham conceded a 90th minute winner to an unmarked Christopher Samba showed an urgent need to shore up a defense which is leaking goals at vital times.

Brett Emerton caused panic in the home backline with his initial free kick and the ball came to Samba who curled a magnificent shot past Radek Cerny.

It had looked more promising early in the second half as Aaron Lennon was brought down by Stephen Warnock and up stepped Robbie Keane to fire Spurs ahead with his eight goal of the season.

But Blackburn were level ten minutes later as Benni McCarthy's shot was deflected past Cerny.

Tottenham came close to a second as Keane set up Dimitar Berbatov who was denied by a superb Brad Friedel save.

Darren Bent replaced the hard-working Steed Malbranque in the 77th minute, before words were exchanged in the dug out and on the pitch where a small of group of players squared-up.

Striker Jermain Defoe also came on with two minutes to go but the action was at the other end of the field as Blackburn cruelly snatched the three points.

Ramos, who quit Sevilla on Friday to sign for Tottenham on a four-year deal, sat next to chairman Daniel Levy who sacked Jol on Thursday night after their 2-1 UEFA Cup defeat to Getafe.

He saw Tottenham shade the first half as Keane drew a pair of saves from Friedel and will be hoping they start his managerial reign with a win when they entertain Blackpool in the English League Cup on Wednesday. E-mail to a friend