Mauricio Pochettino praised the fighting spirit of his Tottenham players after Harry Kane rescued a dramatic 2-2 draw against West Ham on Sunday.

Pochettino's team had fallen 2-0 behind at White Hart Lane as the Hammers struck through Cheikhou Kouyate and Diafra Sakho, but an error by goalkeeper Adrian allowed Danny Rose to get one back with nine minutes left.

And when in-form striker Kane was fouled in the area by Alex Song deep into second half stoppage-time, he kept his composure to smash in the rebound after his spot-kick was saved for his 24th goal of a breakthrough campaign.

It was still a missed opportunity for Tottenham to put pressure on fifth-placed Southampton, who host Liverpool in Sunday's late game, and continued the north London side's poor record after midweek Europa League ties this term.

But Pochettino was delighted with the way his sixth-placed team avoided a costly defeat.

"When you analyse the full 90 minutes I think we deserved one point," he said.

"When they scored it was difficult for us to play, because they play very deep and their counter attack is very good with Sakho and Valencia who are very fast.

"In the second half I thought some decisions were against us, the second goal was offside. But we showed character, that's the most important thing.

"Going into the last 10 minutes at 2-0 down, to finish the game 2-2 is something to be proud of."

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce, frustrated that Kane went down easily under Song's challenge for the penalty, claimed Tottenham were lucky to take a point from a pulsating London derby.

"You can argue whether Alex Song has made enough contact for Harry Kane to go down, but when you're desperate like Tottenham are, you get touched and the player is going to fall over," Allardyce said.

"I'm not blaming Harry Kane for going down in the box, we should do more of that. Maybe we should be more like Tottenham, we stay on our feet.

"They're so lucky today. One with the first goal - Danny Rose has mishit it - and the second goal Adrian saved the penalty and it has gone straight back to Harry Kane."

There was more late drama at Goodison Park, where Everton snatched a 2-2 draw thanks to a Matthew Upson's 89th minute own goal.

After a tame first half, Everton's Scottish striker Steven Naismith broke the deadlock in the 57th minute with a low scuffed shot that beat wrong-footed Leicester goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer at his near post.

But Naismith's sixth goal of the season was cancelled out by David Nugent six minutes later when the Leicester forward tapped in after Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard weakly palmed Jamie Vardy's cross into his path.

And Howard was to blame for Leicester's second goal in the 70th minute as well when he misjudged a high cross, pushing it out to Vardy, who crossed for Argentine midfielder Esteban Cambiasso to fire home from close-range for his first goal since November.

That set the stage for a frantic finale in which Leicester defender Upson unluckily headed into his own net as he dived to try and reach a cross that was flicked on by Everton's Romelu Lukaku.

The draw left Leicester still rooted to the bottom of the table, four points from safety after their fifth successive league game without a win.