Four-Goal Bent Shows There's Life After Keane

On the day Spurs sold striker Robbie Keane to Liverpool against their wishes, Darren Bent went out and proved a point by hitting four goals against Norwich and keeping £30million Manchester United target Dimitar Berbatov sitting on the bench.

Darren Bent showed Spurs manager Juande Ramos there is life after Robbie Keane by scoring four times as Tottenham beat Norwich City 5-1 in a friendly at Carrow Road.

Former Ipswich Town striker Bent was predictably booed by the fans of Norwich - the Tractor Boys’ local rivals - but it had no negative effect on him as he showed that even if Berbatov follows Keane out of White Hart Lane, the flow of goals won’t necessarily dry up.

After his four-goal display, Bent said: "There are places up for grabs and I am doing all I can to take my opportunity."

While most Spurs fans would have been dismayed buy Keane’s exit, Ramos’s side were impressive, taking an early lead when a cross by new signing Giovani dos Santos took a deflection off Norwich’s own new-boy, Dejan Stefanovic, for an own goal.

Glen Roeder's side soon equalised, Ledley King making an error to let in Jamie Cureton, who comfortably beat Heurelho Gomes to score.

However, a minute before the break, Jamie O'Hara found Bent unmarked on the right, and the ex-Charlton striker buried the ball in the bottom corner. Bent quickly headed his second from an Assou-Ekotto cross, and completed his hat-trick witrh 19 minutes to go, adding a fourth three minutes after that.

Norwich: Marshall, Otsemobor, Bertrand, Clingan, Omozusi, Stefanovic, Croft, Fotheringham (C), Cureton, Hoolahan, Pattison. Subs: Russell, Nelson (GK), Chadwick, Shackell, Martin, Renton, Eagle, Smith, Daley.

Tottenham: Gomes, Gunter, Zokora, King (C), Jenas, Gilberto, Modric, O'Hara, Dos Santos, Bent, Dawson. Subs: Jansson, Bale, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Taarabt, Berbatov.