West Ham 1 Spurs 3: Heung-min Son lifts Mauricio Pochettino’s gloom with super double to clinch Carabao Cup quarter-final spot

SON HEUNG-MIN celebrated his 150th appearance for Tottenham by firing them into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals with his first goal for eight months.

The South Korean’s put Spurs 2-0 up inside 54 minutes with goals either side of half-time.

Sub Perez gave the Hammers hope with a 71st minute but Fernando Llorente netted Spurs’ third four minutes later to seal their passage into the last eight.

It fully justified Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to give star striker Harry Kane the night off.

Son had struggled this season after starring for his country at the World Cup and Asian Games - where victory made his exempt from military service.

But he looked back to his best last night as he grabbed his first goals of the campaign.

Mind you, he was helped by the Hammers poor defending on a night when their misery was compounded by two ‘fans’ invading the pitch in separate incidents late in the game.

It was such a shame for the club as they paid tribute to the Leicester helicopter crash victims with such dignity before kick-off.

Co-chairman David Gold, former Hammers and Leicester star Tony Cottee and Tottenham legend Ledley King laid wreaths on the pitch and fans observed a minute’s silence.

The Irons, of course, were the visitors at the King Power on Saturday when the tragedy happened.

They made five changes to their starting line-up, while Tottenham made TEN from the team that lost 1-0 to Manchester City at Wembley on Monday.

Spurs would have been relieved to see the London Stadium pitch looking immaculate with not a gridiron marking or NFL logo in sight.

West Ham had the first serious attack in the 15th minute when Grady Diangana broke down the right and crossed to the back post where Hernandez tried to cushion it into the path of Michail Antonio.

But Tottenham defender Juan Foyth was on hand to intercept before his central defensive partner Davinson Sanchez saw the ball out for a corner.

Within moments the Hammers found themselves behind after their defender Angelo Ogbonna failed to clear his lines and Fernando Llorente played the ball into Dele Alli on the edge of the area with his back to goal.

The England midfielder, making his first appearance since injuring his hamstring in Tottenham’s penalty shootout win over Watford at Milton Keynes in the previous round, cleverly flicked the ball on for Son to fire it first time into the roof of the net.

Incredibly it was the South Korean’s first Spurs goal for 20 appearances since he netted in the North Londoners 4-1 win at Bournemouth way back on March 11.

Tottenham soon nearly added a second soon as Christian Eriksen saw a shot blocked after another sweeping move from the visitors.

But West Ham hit back strongly before break with Antonio twice going close. First his curling shot from the corner of the area was deflected over by Victor Wanyama’s challenge.

Then Antonio out-paced Kyle Walker-Peters to latch on to Arthur Masuaku brilliant pass down the left flank before cutting into the box and unleashing a shot that had the sting taken out of it by Foyth’s challenge allowing Gazzaniga to turn it away for a corner.

Tottenham’s Argentinean reserve keeper also did well to claw away Hernandez’s shot from eight yards after Masuaku had pulled the ball back.

West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini took off the ineffective Felipe Anderson at half-time, replacing him with Robert Snodgrass.

And this certainly seemed to give the hosts extra energy at the start of the second half and they almost levelled as Antonio muscled Foyth off the ball before his shot was blocked by Gazzaniga.

But the Hammers, just like with the first goal, shot themselves in the foot again as they conceded a second nine minutes into the second half.

Dele’s attempted through ball to Son was poor, Masuaku’s attempt to control it was even worse, as it went through him, giving the Spurs man a clear run on goal.

Son, brimming again with confidence after his opener, made no mistake as he rounded Hammers keeper Adrian before slotting the ball into the net.

This sparked some minor unrest among the home and away fans, but with most of it posturing and bravado it was soon brought under control by police and stewards who ejected a couple of yobs.

Pellegrini reacted by sending on Marko Arnautovic and Perez for Pedro Obiang and Hernandez.

And after an Arnautovic cross had been brilliantly cleared by Foyth from under his own bar, Perez pulled a goal back for the Hammers in the 71st minute with a header from Snodgrass’ corner.

Suddenly a repeat of West Ham’s comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2 against Tottenham at the same stage of this competition looked on.

But there was to be no groundhog day as Llorente side-footed in the visitors’ third from a corner four minutes later after a yob from the home stands had run onto the pitch.

The idiot’s actions clearly distracted his team’s defence as the Spaniard netted his first goal of the season and his first since the 6-1 FA Cup win over Rochdale in March.

We then had another fan from the home end run onto the pitch in the final minute.

The moron in a Halloween mask was eventually stopped by Masuaku - in scenes that evoked memories of the pitch invasions at the Hammers’ 3-0 home defeat by Burnley in March.

The Tottenham fans chanted “Is that Mark Noble?” before singing: “He’ll never play for England?”