A goal two minutes into added time kept alive West Brom’s chance of pulling off the greatest of great escapes and staying in the Premier League against all the odds.
The Baggies were still left needing other results to go in their favour and having to beat Crystal Palace away in their last match but, after the match appeared to be heading for the draw that would have sent them down today, it was an extraordinary twist.
The goal was the most scrambled affair, eventually bundled in by Jake Livermore in the melee that followed Hugo Lloris’s save from a Craig Dawson header. The former Spurs midfielder's effort seemed to bounce off Danny Rose into the net.
The result means that Tottenham, who had been looking to all but clinch their place in the top four, still have a little more to do, although their last two matches are at home.
Albion are unbeaten in five matches under Darren Moore, including three wins, with the coach having taken over only a month ago after a run of nine consecutive Premier League defeats led the Albion board to call time on Alan Pardew’s disastrous time in charge.
Mauricio Pochettino had made four changes to his Tottenham side following the low-key win over Watford and completely dominated the first half, in which the home side could only occasionally win possession of the ball, let alone create any goal threat.
Tottenham were not at their sharpest, still perhaps trying to rediscover the verve after the FA Cup semi-final defeat left them with no silverware to play for yet again, but twice were prevented only by Ben Foster from going ahead.
The first real opportunity fell to Victor Wanyama after 24 minutes, picked out in space just outside the box by Dele Alli. The Kenyan shaped a lovely curling shot that was heading for the top right-hand corner, but Foster stretched to push the ball over the bar.
The former England goalkeeper did not know too much about his second important intervention, a close-range shot from Harry Kane striking him on the head before spinning out for a 30th-minute corner.
It was a better chance than the first, created by Kieran Trippier’s defence-splitting pass, and Kane probably should have scored, although Foster did the right thing by presenting himself as as big an obstacle as he could manage.
Kane had a chance from the corner, but headed rather tamely wide of the target. Yet it could and probably should have been advantage Albion at the break.
At last able to break into the Tottenham half, they created panic when a deep free-kick from Chris Brunt on the left after 42 minutes went all the way through to Jay Rodriguez at the far post. He hoicked the ball over the head of Lloris and back across goal and although there was no Albion player anywhere near, Toby Alderweireld took no chances and headed the ball to safety over his own bar.
A couple of minutes later after Albion won a corner, swung in by Matt Phillips from the left, and centre-back Ahmed Hegazi missed with what was almost a free header. He held his head in his hands as he might, given that it was the best chance of the match to that point.
Still, it gave the home side some impetus going into the second half and there was an early half-chance for Salomon Rondon after Davinson Sanchez failed to cut out a Phillips cross.
With Christian Eriksen having an increased influence on the game from midfield, however, Tottenham still looked the more likely. Indeed, it was Eriksen who tested Foster for the third time, with a free-kick that the goalkeeper beat away at his right-hand post.
The tensions in both sets of players was evident when a clash between Danny Rose and Allan Nyom led to a confrontation that took some calming down.
Rose reacted to a Nyom challenge by pushing the Albion full-back away and catching him in the face as he did so. Nyom went down theatrically and had to be restrained by team-mates after referee Michael Jones decided to book him alone when it seemed there was at least a case to caution Rose.
Extraordinarily, after having missed his best chance to that point of cutting Mo Salah’s lead in the race for the Golden Boot, Kane almost scored at his own end with 16 minutes left, forcing Hugo Lloris to make the best save of the afternoon after his attempt to clear a Hegazi header went horribly wrong.
It was a foretaste of the drama that was to follow as Albion snatched their unlikely win.