Peter Crouch believes Tottenham must wise up to stop conceding late goals in key matches.
Spurs face Fulham in the Premier League tomorrow still reeling from Jermaine Beckford's injury-time penalty for Leeds in Saturday's FA Cup tie which sealed a 2-2 draw for the League One side and a replay at Elland Road on 2 February. Some of Spurs' attacking football has been excellent this season but Crouch admitted they may need to be more pragmatic when they have the lead.
"When we go forward, we leave gaps at times and that's what happened against Leeds," said Crouch.
"We're a very attacking side and it's great to watch but when you do that, you can leave yourself open. We shouldn't have let Leeds in our penalty area. If we weren't going to score another goal, we needed to get the ball into the corners in injury-time."
Crouch had words of encouragement for fellow striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, who scored in the fourth-round tie on what may prove one of his final appearances for the club.
Pavlyuchenko could still return to Russia before the end of the month, with his former club Spartak Moscow retaining an interest. Crouch said: "He's a top-quality player and when he plays, he's going to do well."
Jermain Defoe's early penalty miss proved crucial for Spurs and was his second error from 12 yards in less than two months following his late failure in the 2-2 draw at Everton on 6 December.
