Full-time: Tottenham Hotspur 4 Newcastle United 0

IT is now more than 60 years since Newcastle United claimed a major domestic trophy, and if last night was supposed to be a key step towards addressing the failing, it ended with the club as far away from silverware as ever.

Comprehensively trounced by a Tottenham side who are supposedly underperforming this season, the progress of the last few months felt a world away as Newcastle collapsed in arguably their biggest game of the campaign so far. Suddenly, Sunday’s derby with Sunderland has assumed even more importance.

Trailing to Nabil Bentaleb’s first-half opener, which came courtesy of a horrendous error from rookie goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, the Magpies folded in the second half in a manner reminiscent of so many of their capitulations under Alan Pardew.

Nacer Chadli, Harry Kane and Roberto Soldado scored to book Tottenham a place in the Capital One Cup semi-finals, and leave Newcastle heading into the second half of the season with the FA Cup representing their only hope of a trophy. And we all know what their recent record is there.

Pardew can claim that last night’s line up was the strongest he could name, and in light of various injuries, illnesses and suspensions, he would probably be right. But a boardroom dismissal of the cup competitions continues to rankle, and results like last night’s do nothing to dispel the notion of a club not particularly interested in winning something.

Perhaps a derby victory will repair some of the damage, although it remains to be seen whether Alnwick, who was receiving treatment for a shoulder complaint throughout the second half, is capable of repelling Sunderland.

The 21-year-old performed a series of second-half heroics after coming off the bench against Chelsea, but there were signs of frailty in last weekend’s 4-1 defeat at Arsenal and there was always going to be a question of how he would perform once the initial euphoria of his elevation to the senior ranks wore off.

Sadly, the answer arrived in the 18th minute. Newcastle had been relatively secure up until that point, soaking up pressure in the midfield area and looking to use the pace of Emmanuel Riviere, Ayoze Perez and Remy Cabella to launch forward raids on the counter-attack.

Alnwick had kept out a Chadli drive that was fired straight at him, but when he was asked to collect a routine corner from Christian Eriksen, he was found seriously wanting.

Barely pressurised on the edge of his six-yard box, Alnwick allowed the ball to fall from his grasp, and Bentaleb reacted quickest to stab home. It was an awful error, and while inexperience is clearly a mitigating factor, opposition sides, starting with Sunderland on Sunday, will hardly be reticent in testing Alnwick’s aerial capabilities now a potential weakness has become apparent.

With Freddie Woodman, who was unable to force his way into the Hartlepool United side during a recent loan spell, the only other option, and the FA seemingly unwilling to countenance an emergency loan signing, Pardew will have to hope that Alnwick’s character is strong enough to survive the inevitable scrutiny.

To his credit, the youngster dusted himself down reasonably successfully last night, although he would have been relieved to see Kane whistle a long-range drive narrowly past his post after Yoan Gouffran’s errant pass played his side into trouble.

There was more relief for Newcastle four minutes before the break as referee Andre Marriner waved away some vociferous Spurs penalty claims after Fabricio Coloccini tangled with Kane in the area. The Argentinian undoubtedly made contact with his opponent’s legs as he attempted to cut off his run to the byline, but the Magpies escaped unscathed.

Incredibly, it was almost half-time before some Newcastle fans made it into White Hart Lane, with around 1,000 or supporters unable to gain access to the ground at kick-off. First-hand reports suggest there were insufficient turnstiles open for those in the upper tier of the away end, and the pictures posted of a crush outside the stadium made for disturbing viewing.

Once inside the ground, the experience for the 4,000-strong travelling support did not significantly improve, and any hopes of a second-half comeback were effectively extinguished within 33 seconds of the interval.

In October’s league game between the two sides, it was Sammy Ameobi who exploded into life and scored within a minute of the restart. This time around, it was Newcastle on the receiving end of a second-half sucker punch as Chadli was allowed to cut in from the left-hand side and drill a low 20-yard effort into the bottom left-hand corner.

Chadli’s urgency in the opening minute of the half was commendable, but the visitors’ failure to make a single challenge as he ran parallel to the edge of the 18-yard box was completely inexcusable.

A swift reply might have given them a chance of a comeback, but after Perez broke down the right-hand side eight minutes later, both Riviere and Cabella failed to connect with his driven centre. It felt like a potential lifeline spurned, and summed up the former’s unproductive evening in particular.

The rest of the evening was simply a matter of how many Spurs would score, and while Massadio Haidara cleared Jan Vertonghen’s goal-bound header off the line, the home side’s third goal came shortly after the hour mark.

The impressive Kane had troubled Mike Williamson all night, and after eluding the out-of-form centre-half to receive Andros Townsend’s through ball, he swivelled to drill home a low finish.

Worse was to follow seven minutes later as Newcastle fell further behind via the concession of a goal that screamed of total surrender.

Alnwick got down well to parry Eriksen’s shot, but no one tracked Soldado as he followed up, and despite initially miscontrolling the ball, the substitute still had time to roll into an unguarded net.