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Robbie Keane's late strike earned Tottenham Hotspur a 1-1 Premier League draw against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

The Spurs captain fired low into the right corner in the 89th minute, cancelling out Kieran Richardson's opener scored with less than three minutes gone.

Both sides will reflect on missed chances, while referee Phil Dowd turned down strong penalty appeals at either end.

On a brisk afternoon in the North-East, many fans had not yet taken their seats when Richardson burst into the box from midfield and placed a neat shot past Heurelho Gomes and inside the bottom-left corner.

Never has the midfielder looked more like Steven Gerrard, although the likeness owed as much to Spurs' slack defending as it did to Richardson's own qualities.

The home side's large contingent of White Hart Lane rejects meant both teams knew each other well, and familiar seemed to breed contempt as the game descended into a fractious bore.

Sunderland's first XI contained four ex-Spurs men, Marton Fulop, Steed Malbranque, and Andy Reid, while Calum Davenport was on the bench and Teemu Tainio out injured.

Pascal Chimbonda is now back at Tottenham after a brief spell at the Stadium of Light, and was deployed at left-back ahead of Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Gareth Bale.

He was involved in an early skirmish with ex-team-mate Djibril Cisse who, when not getting caught offside, spent most of the afternoon leaping into opponents and protesting furiously when Dowd refused to award him free-kicks.

Tottenham went closest with headers from Darren Bent and Keane that were wayward and weak respectively.

Otherwise, it was bad-tempered stuff, with Dowd moved to show five yellow cards in the first half.

Bent was preferred to Roman Pavyluchenko, but his finishing made the Russian's dreadful Carling Cup final performance look like a masterclass in the striker's art.

If Bent's first-half header was bad, he produced much worse after the break. A desperately poor sliced 'clearance' saw him played clean through, but he fired high over the bar from 12 yards with the goal at his mercy.

A minute later he had the chance to make amends but dragged a low shot wide from the right side of the box.

It was no better at the other end, as Cisse somehow failed to turn in a low Reid cross from six yards after it eluded Gomes. The Frenchman then saw a goalbound header blocked by Ledley King and was hauled off shortly afterwards.

Tottenham were denied a penalty 15 minutes from time when Phil Bardsley clearly handled a cross from the left but referee Dowd saw no offence, and Luka Modric blasted over the rebound.

Keane then toe-poked a half-chance high over the bar and Tom Huddlestone headed straight at Fulop.

Sunderland might have had a penalty when Kenwyne Jones appeared to be pulled over at a corner, although he certainly made the most of whatever contact there was. Dowd said no foul and Spurs immediately equalised.

They broke down the right with Bent, whose low cross was volleyed in emphatically by Keane, as Fulop got a hand on the ball but not enough to keep it out.

Both sides move to 32 points, five clear of the relegation zone.

Alex Chick / Eurosport