Tottenham head coach Juande Ramos refused to criticise Radek Cerny after the goalkeeper handed former club Slavia Prague a UEFA Cup lifeline.Spurs were cruising against Slavia in Thursday night's last-32 first-leg tie and Cerny had little to do at the Strahov Stadium until he dropped David Hubacek's hanging cross with 21 minutes left and David Strihavka prodded in.

It means Spurs have a slender 2-1 advantage to defend next week if they are to make it the last 16 of the competition.

"The mistakes can always happen, that is the world of football," said Ramos. "This time it was the turn of Cerny.

"It's quite possible that he seemed really nervous after the goal, more than normal.

"It must be very difficult for him to be at his home ground to play against his former club."

Robbie Keane, who scored Spurs' second goal, added: "Things happen. He made a mistake but he's big enough to accept that."

Spurs could probably have done with wrapping up victory in the Czech Republic capital, given that they have the Carling Cup final three days after the second leg.

"Before the cup final we have the second leg of this tie and all our efforts are now concentrated on this match, and before we finish it we won't be thinking about Wembley," said Ramos.

In sub-zero temperatures, Dimitar Berbatov opened the scoring in the fourth minute when he steered in a volley after Jermaine Jenas' run was halted on the edge of the area.

Keane added the second on the half-hour mark when Jenas split the home defence.

"I think we really controlled the play in the first hour but we became quite nervous and could have achieved a better result," said Ramos.

"We allowed Slavia to react and find a way back and now we have a tough second leg to play.

"The match lasts 90 minutes and we have to take it like that.

"We have to accept it. We could have achieved a better result, a more definite win but we can't change it."

Keane added on five: "In the first half we played brilliantly, they didn't get a sniff.

"We came out in the second half and I don't know what happened, we knew they would come out and make it difficult for us. The second half performance was not good enough.

"We've won the game, that's the most important thing. But we wanted to get the job finished.

"There's still a bit left in this game, we'll get them back to White Hart Lane and there's no reason why we can't go through."

Slavia coach Karel Jarolim felt his side relaxed after falling two goals behind.

"We knew there was nothing to lose," he said. "Radek Cerny helped us because he did not catch the ball but it was good from our player."

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