Dennis Rofe took charge of an impressive-looking Saints Reserves side last night - and said he was disappointed with some of the senior players as they went down 2-0 to Tottenham.

Rofe, standing in for Steve Wigley on England U21 duty, said: "For some reason, the team's display can dip when you have a lot of senior players in the reserves.

"We hoped for better with the 11 we started with and I can't help but be disappointed with a few of them."

With Kleber Chala out injured, Andrei Kanchelskis made his eagerly-awaited debut only hours after it was announced he was to be given the Saints No.7 shirt.

And the Russian gave a performance worthy of Matthew LeTissier's number by being at the centre of all Saints things creative.

That in itself was an achievement on a night of few chances at Stevenage Borough's patchy pitch - but Tottenham's younger outfit proved the hungrier to emulate their first team's win over Saints from the weekend.

Kanchelskis and Mark Draper had decent first-half chances before Tottenham went ahead after 43 minutes through one of their older heads, Les Ferdinand, whose shot squirmed past Neil Moss at the near post.

Tahar El Khalej could have equalised in the second half with a spectacular scissors kick but it was his foul in the box on Sutton 20 minutes from time that killed off Saints - Sutton dusted himself down and converted the penalty.

Rofe added: "Andrei Kanchelskis did pretty well. He lasted the full distance and that would have helped him on his road back to full fitness. He was understandably tired at the end."

Spurs: Hirschfeld, Kelly, Henry, Freund, Bortolozzo (Bowditch 65), Perry, Snee (Hughes 74), Sutton, Ferdinand (Marney 45), Ricketts, Galbraith. Subs: Jalal, O'Donoghue.

Saints: Moss, Dodd, Benali, Draper, Monk, El Khalej, Kanchelskis, Oakley, Davies, Tessem (Surman 78), Howard (A Davies 65). Subs: Byles, Blayney.