Harry: My reserves are good enough to win Cup

LONDON: Harry Redknapp will field a second-string line-up in Totten-ham’s FA Cup third round tie with Charlton Athletic today but insists his reserves are good enough to win the competition.

It is a measure of the progress Spurs have made under Redknapp – who expects to add David Beckham to his squad this month – that the FA Cup now figures third on a list of priorities behind the Premier League title race and the Champions League.

The manager is confident his side can maintain their challenge at the head of the league table and, having reached the last 16, is hoping to spring more surprises in European football’s elite competition.

Success at White Hart Lane has brought with it a crowded fixture list and Redknapp intends to nurse his first choice players through the final months of the season by utilising his squad players in the FA Cup.

Tottenham’s squad has been acknowledged as one of the strongest in the Premier League for the last two seasons and Redknapp has experienced internationals including Niko Kranjcar, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Vedran Corluka ready to step in.

“They’re all fantastic players – if they can’t do the job then there’s something wrong,” said Redknapp.

“They need games and they’re still a good team. It gives me a chance to get a good game into them.

“I’m not fielding a bunch of kids. I’m fielding a team of international players so we’re full of quality. It’s not a problem.

“We’ve still got the Champions League but for some teams they just kick it in to touch and I don’t understand why.

“It’s one competition that they have a chance of winning. They can’t win the Premier League, they’re not going to get into the Champions League but they have a chance to win the Carling (League) Cup and FA Cup and I think they should go for it.”

Charlton dismissed manager Phil Parkinson following the recent home defeat to Swindon Town and have put Keith Peacock in temporary charge for the FA Cup tie.

“It is an unexpected situation for me,” said Peacock. “Unexpected things turn up in football. In this game, as in life, I just take each week as it comes.”