Colchester 0 Tottenham 0 (Pens 4-3): Spurs dumped out of the Carabao Cup after losing on penalties

JOHN McGREAL’S League Two minnows Lap-danced their way to a shock shootout win.

Tom Lapslie converted Colchester’s winning spot-kick after they took the Premier League giants to penalties.

Spurs’ season is now in danger of falling apart before the clocks have even gone back after they missed a string of chances in normal time.

But gutsy Colchester showed as much fighting spirit as the soldiers in the town’s garrison by producing the club’s most famous win since they knocked Don Revie’s mighty Leeds team out of the FA Cup back in 1971.

The Essex boys may have rode their luck to take the game to penalties, but once there they made no mistake — just like in the previous round when they won at Crystal Palace by the same method.

Keeper Dean Gerken saved Christian Eriksen’s opening spot-kick before Spurs stopper Paulo Gazzaniga kept out Jevani Brown’s terrible Panenka effort.

And the hosts held their nerve in the final round of kicks as Lucas Moura’s effort rattled the bar before Colchester midfielder Lapslie scored to send the underdogs through to the fourth round.

Tottenham did not arrive at the JobServe Community Stadium until 65 minutes before kick-off.

Their team bus was delayed in heavy traffic, caused by a string of accidents on the A12.

To make matters worse, train services from the capital to Essex were delayed by flooding.

This meant, despite being a sell-out, there were still many chunks of empty seats — especially in the away end — when the teams kicked off on time.

Tottenham arrived in England’s oldest town after making a poor start to the season with only two wins from their opening seven matches in all competitions.

Mauricio Pochettino guided Spurs to the League Cup final in his first season in charge back in 2014-15 and the semi-finals last term — losing to Chelsea on both occasions — despite insisting this competition has never been his priority.

And even though he made TEN changes to his starting line-up after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Leicester, it was still a fairly strong team featuring six internationals — including England duo Eric Dier and Dele Alli.

There were also debuts for academy products Japhet Tanganga and Troy Parrott. Defender Tanganga, 20, impressed on Spurs’ summer tour of the Far East while strike starlet Parrott, a man- mountain of a 17-year-old, is seen as Harry Kane’s possible successor.

With the England captain given the night off, along with Harry Winks and record £65million buy Tanguy Ndombele, Parrott was given the chance to shine up front.

And the Republic of Ireland Under-21 prospect showed his potential against Colchester’s rugged defenders, as his 15th-minute shot from the edge of the box was deflected narrowly wide for a corner.

Dele then side-footed wide before Moura’s 20-yard free-kick was beaten away by Colchester keeper Gerken.

At the back, Tanganga was able to have an assured debut as the Premier League side’s goal was hardly threatened.

The hosts, as expected, were on the back foot for most of the contest, but they did manage to get to half-time without conceding.

Tricky winger Courtney Senior’s runs forward gave them some brief moments of hope. But even when McGreal’s men did force their first corner at the start of the second half it ended with another Tottenham breakaway.

That bizarrely resulted in U’s right-back Ryan Jackson having to go off injured after he was penalised for handballing a Ben Davies cross on the edge of the box.

Jackson’s replacement Paris Cowan-Hall was fortunate not to give away a penalty for a shove in the back of Dele.

Cowan-Hall’s luck did not last as he was soon booked for clattering Parrott as the visitors cranked up the pressure. Kyle Walker-Peters hit the post with one cross-shot before Gerken patted away another.

Tottenham boss Pochettino made a double change for in the 66th minute as he replaced debut duo Tanganga and Parrott with Eriksen and Son Heung-min.

But Colchester continued to stand firm and as the clock ticked down the more the noise and expectation in the home stands increased.

Pochettino rolled his last dice by sending on Erik Lamela for Oliver Skipp. But it was the U’s who nearly snatched a late winner as first Cohen Bramall floated a ball across the face of the Spurs goal before Senior blazed a shot just wide from the edge of the box.

A special mention must be made for U’s journeyman striker Frank Nouble, who celebrated his 28th birthday by chasing endless lost causes and scoring a spot-kick in the shootout.

Let’s hope his team got him a cake — although he will be happy just with a fourth round spot.