Spurs reach holy grail and get ready for the big boys...

Tottenham Hotspur have finally reached the Champions League after years of trying, secured this evening with a 1-0 win away to fourth place rivals Manchester City. Spurs knew that if they could just secure victory against their rivals, a Champions League spot would be secured with one game to go, and they secured the most important moment in the club's recent history thanks to a Peter Crouch goal in the 82nd minute.

Having started marginally the better team, Manchester City would have fancied their chances of securing the victory that would take the battle for fourth place into the final day of the season, this coming Sunday.

But the main talking point of the first half ended up being a dissallowed goal for Tottenham. Ledley King was harshly judged to have fouled Gareth Barry in jumping to head home a corner, and the general consensus was that the goal should have stood.

Heurelho Gomes, the Tottenham goalkeeper, pulled off a string of top draw saves at the other end to keep the scores level, including an excellent diving effort to keep out a long range Adam Johnson shot, and a sprawl across goal to claw the ball away after a deflection from Gareth Bale, preventing what looked to be a certain own goal in the process.

After the break, both teams looked tired, and Tom Huddlestone seemed lucky to be only awarded a yellow card after what looked like a stamp on Manchester City midfielder Nigel De Jong.

Both sides had half chances throughout the half, but Crouch, who had already hit the post in the first half with a close range header, looked to have wasted a golden opportunity when his header from a wonderful Gareth Bale cross went straight at the legs of City goalkeeper Martin Fulop, who was able to save.

But, with eight minutes remaining, Crouch atoned for his earlier misses, and scored a priceless goal; reacting first after a deflected Younes Kaboul cross was pushed into his path by Fulop and heading into the top corner, though Craig Bellamy, marking Kaboul, could most certainly have done better to stop the cross coming in.

As Spurs held out for the victory, and dreamed of potentially meeting some of Europe's biggest clubs in the world's premiere club competition next season, they could be happy in the knowledge of a deserved win, secured with a performance superior to that of the much more expensively assembled City side, who will now have to make do with a Europa League spot next year.

For Spurs, though, they will certainly be thrilled by the fact that they have secured their place in the Champions League, and with it at least £30m of prize money.

City manager Roberto Mancini, brought to the club to secure them 4th spot, may well be worrying about his long term future though, as the Manchester City board certainly haven't been scared of making radical changes when they see fit.

Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, however, deserves a huge deal of credit for the way he has turned around the club, after joining early last season with Tottenham struggling in the relegation zone, and now, just 18 months on, ready for the big time.

Redknapp was understandably delighted with his team's success. He said: "It's fantastic. It's been a terrific season for us, we've played some great football along the way and we deserve it."

That is most certainly true. Spurs are about to start mixing it with the big boys. And in all honesty, they deseve nothing less.