UEFA CUP Round One 1st Leg Slavia Prague 0 Tottenham 1

A first-half goal from Jermaine Jenas gave lacklustre Tottenham the advantage over a poor Slavia Prague side on the north London club's return to the European stage.

Spurs produced a performance that mirrored their rather inauspicious start to the Premiership campaign in tonight's UEFA Cup first round first leg clash.

Without the services of England winger Aaron Lennon - sidelined once more with a knee injury which would appear to need surgery to cure - Martin Jol's men were strangely lacking in passion against their inexperienced opponents.

Spurs have failed to find the net in three of their four Premiership games this season and even with England's Jermain Defoe restored to the starting line-up alongside Mido, they again looked distinctly short of a cutting edge.

It was Tottenham's first European game since they were knocked of the UEFA Cup by German side Kaiserslautern seven years ago - but they found it difficult to find any kind of rhythm in the opening exchanges.

Slavia may not have possessed the same kind of quality as their illustrious opponents but they matched the Premiership side for effort and endeavour in all departments in the opening 20 minutes.

Paul Robinson who was first forced into action when Dusan Svento's promising run and cross forced the England goalkeeper to punch the ball clear.

On the half-hour Spurs forced Prague's substitute goalkeeper Matus Kozacik into action just moments after he'd replaced injured Michal Vorel.

Kozacik dived to his right to ensure Pascal Chimbonda's header did not find its way into the corner after the Spurs right-back had met Jenas' corner at the far post.

Spurs finally took the lead with their first clever move of the game in the 38th minute - and it was made entirely by the powerful run of fellow midfielder Didier Zokora.

The Ivorian ran fully 50 yards unchallenged before laying the ball off to the waiting Jenas, who drilled a low shot into the bottom corner for his second goal of the season.

It was Tottenham's first away goal in Europe since Gordon Durie netted against SC Stockerau in a European Cup Winners' Cup preliminary round 15 years ago.

The powerful Zokora produced another 60-yard run in the 47th minute before delivering a clever cross onto the head of Defoe.

The England man brought a save from Kozacik with a deft header which lacked the power to beat him.

But Zokora's contribution to the midfield was the main plus point for Spurs as he began to produce the kind of form which prompted the club to spend £8.2million.

Slavia then enjoyed their best spell of the game and almost got back on level terms in the 61st minute when Tomas Hrdlicka sent a left-foot effort just wide of Robinson's right-hand post.

The home side were now causing Spurs some real problems and in the 67th minute Robinson pulled off a double save to preserve Tottenham's lead, beating away a Svento free-kick before denying Stanislav Vlcek.

Tottenham were now beginning struggle in midfield and in the 71st minute Jol opted to replace Tom Huddlestone with the experience of Dutch veteran Edgar Davids.

In the 72nd minute Robinson had to be nimble to clear the ball from the onrushing Vlcek as the home side continued to push for an equaliser.

Tottenham coach Jol replaced Defoe with Robbie Keane in the 79th minute and the Republic of Ireland striker immediately began to provide the visitors with more guile in attack.

Keane almost added to Tottenham's lead in the 87th minute when he raced on to a through-ball from Jenas - only to see his shot beaten away by the onrushing Kozacik.

But Spurs had done enough to take a crucial away goal lead back to White Hart Lane for the return leg on September 28 - even though the performance was hardly the stuff on which their European traditions had been founded.