Preston North End boss Alan Irvine was left impressed by Tottenham after their 5-1 Carling Cup thrashing last night.

He said: "They will hurt you and there are some harsh lessons for us to learn.

"We need to be more clinical but Spurs have an outstanding choice of strikers.

"Two of them are England centre-forwards and the other one is a Republic of Ireland international.

"Whether Spurs can break into the top four I don't know, but they will certainly be there or thereabouts.

"They have got a very good squad and a very good manager in Harry."