Huddlestone clipped the ball to the far post, where Gareth Bale rose above Nathaniel Clyne to head the ball back across goal and past Artur Boruc into the far corner. Bale declined to celebrate scoring against the club that nurtured him.
Southampton were achieving the rather neat trick of ceding control of the flanks whilst still being outnumbered in the centre.
Their front four looked an obsolescence, enjoying only the most ephemeral influence on the game. Tottenham were cutting them open at will, doubling their lead courtesy of a consummate slice of ineptitude by Jose Fonte.
The horrifying chain of events was set in motion by Boruc, who rushed out of his goal to meet Jermain Defoe without the slightest chance of intercepting the ball. Defoe dinked the ball over him, but Fonte looked to have the ball well within his stride, before losing his balance not once, not twice, but three times.
First he stumbled, letting the ball trickle through his legs. Next, he slipped as he chased it down. Finally, he slipped again as he scraped the ball off the line, but straight into the path of Clint Dempsey, who smashed home from two yards.
Let us not forget, however, that Tottenham are a side that have not kept a clean sheet away from home in the league since April. Mayuka's introduction
for the wretched Jason Puncheon turned the game, providing Southampton with a reliable link between defence and attack. A more direct approach brought a deserved goal, Fonte's clever flick at the near post finished off by Jay Rodriguez with an emphatic finish.
Tottenham retreated. Huddlestone and Defoe came off, Jake Livermore and Gylfi Sigurdsson replacing them, not that either did very much at all.
Rodriguez's left-footed shot flashed just wide. Morgan Schneiderlin's long-range shot almost decapitated the heroic Sandro. The Southampton fans, so quiet in the first half, were roaring their team home.
With 40 seconds left, Southampton were awarded a free-kick just inside their own-half. Boruc took it, one last hoist to complete the heist.
It was cleared by Tottenham, who gratefully accepted the final whistle and will travel back to London bemused at how they ever let it get this close.
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