Struggling Charlton paid a potentially disastrous price for some wasteful finishing as Spurs took all three precious points from tonight's Premiership London derby.

Captain Mark Kinsella's fifth-minute effort had got the home side off to a flying start on a miserable wet night at The Valley as the Addicks' desperate battle against relegation continued.

Alan Curbishley's men could easily have put the game beyond the visitors before four goals in the last half-hour sent Charlton back into the relegation zone on goal difference.

Andy Hunt and Martin Pringle wasted glorious chances to double Charlton's advantage in the first 10 minutes of the second half when both were put clean through.

Those missed chances then came back to haunt the south London side with a vengeance as Steffen Iversen, Sol Campbell and late strikes from substitute Jose Dominguez and David Ginola compounded the misery.

The scoreline undoubtedly flattered Spurs, but the harsh reality for Charlton is that they now have only four games left to save themselves from the drop. Even so, with fellow strugglers Everton and Blackburn still to play, their destiny could still be in their own hands.

The result prolonged bottom club Nottingham Forest's misery for another few days at least and piled on the pressure for Curbishley's men as another handful of home points slipped through their fingers.

Charlton, with Mark Bowen replacing the suspended Danny Mills in defence, were well on top in the early stages, with Spurs goalkeeper Ian Walker already forced to sprint from his line to deny the on-rushing Pringle from Bowen's through ball.

It came as no surprise that they opened the scoring via Kinsella's third goal of the season.

Paul Mortimer, who missed the crucial penalty in Saturday's 1-1 home draw with Leeds, sent over a deep cross from the left flank that seemed to have been hit too long to cause any danger.

But Graham Stuart, a club record £1.1million signing from Sheffield United, refused to give up a lost cause and managed to turn the ball back towards the edge of the area for Kinsella to race in and beat Walker's dive with a right-foot shot.

As the home side dominated the early stages Roger Nilsen had to make a superb interception to prevent Pringle being released by Stuart, and the Swedish international then saw his shot deflected narrowly wide for a corner.

Until then Spurs had offered nothing in attack apart from when Ginola - recalled to the side along with Darren Anderton - flashed a drive well over the bar in the first quarter-hour.

But George Graham's side gradually got a foothold in the game, and Tim Sherwood's header from Anderton's 27th-minute free-kick flew wide. Minutes later Iversen's effort was not too far over Andy Petterson's crossbar.

Anderton then caused panic in the home penalty box as he got behind Chris Powell to send the ball spinning across the six-yard box, and it was striker Hunt back on defensive duty who hacked the ball clear.

Within a minute of the restart Bowen's hopeful long ball found Pringle on the wrong side of Campbell and seemingly clear through on goal.

But a brilliant late lunge from the England defender prevented the former Benfica forward getting a clean shot on goal before a combination of Campbell and Walker managed to scramble the ball clear as Hunt tried to stab home the loose ball.

Hunt himself then had an equally good chance to double Charlton's advantage on 53 minutes when put clean through by the hard-working Pringle after Sherwood's miscontrol.

But with just Walker to beat Hunt could only shoot weakly at the goalkeeper from 18 yards.

Nilsen then saw his superb left-foot volley well blocked by Kinsella on the six-yard line before Charlton were then made to pay dearly for their profligacy on 57 minutes.

Iversen skipped past a couple of half-hearted challenges to exchange a neat one-two with Sherwood on the edge of the area before blasting a left-foot drive past Petterson.

The goalkeeper did manage to keep out a brilliant curling right-foot effort from Ginola on 64 minutes with an acrobatic save - but he was left totally exposed by his defence on 78 minutes as Spurs took the lead.

Anderton's outswinging corner found Campbell unmarked in the area, and he stooped to steer a diving header past Petterson from 12 yards.

There was still time for Charlton to almost find the equaliser, Hunt's first effort blocked by Stephen Carr on the edge of the area and his second somehow saved by Walker's outstretched leg when it looked as though a deflection had sent the goalkeeper the wrong way.

But instead of making it 2-2 Charlton soon found themselves out of the game entirely.

First Dominguez, on for the ineffective Chris Armstrong, weaved his way past tired Charlton legs to score the third and then Ginola scored the fourth to put an unfair gloss on the proceedings for Spurs.

Teams

Charlton: Petterson, Powell, Rufus, Kinsella, Bowen, Tiler, Jones, Mortimer (Barnes 65), Stuart, Hunt, Pringle (Mendonca 75).

Subs Not Used: Brown, Barness, Salmon.

Goals: Kinsella 5.

Tottenham: Walker, Carr, Taricco, Nilsen, Campbell, Anderton, Sherwood, Freund (Nielsen 72), Ginola, Iversen,Armstrong (Dominguez 72).

Subs Not Used: Fox, Baardsen, Young.

Goals: Iversen 57, Campbell 79, Dominguez 89, Ginola 90.

Att: 20,043

Ref: D Gallagher (Banbury).