Sunday
11th March, 2001 FA CUP 6th
Round
Pearce 41
Rebrov 31, 58
Todorov 72
Doherty 63
West Ham (3-5-2):
Hislop , Dailly , Pearce S , Winterburn , Stimac , Schemmel (Todorov
67) , Carrick , Cole , Lampard , Di Canio , Kanoute
Subs not used:
Forrest , Pearce I , Song , Moncur
Bookings:
Tottenham
Hotspur (3-5-2): Sullivan , Campbell , Doherty , Young ,
Perry , King , Clemence , Freund , Ferdinand (Korsten 89) ,
Rebrov , Iversen
Subs not used:
Walker , Gardner , Davies , Etherington
Bookings: Sullivan, Clemence, Doherty, Ferdinand
Singing in the Rain, walking in a Rebrov
Wonderland – Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. A great
performance in a great cup tie that will live long in the memory.
On an increasingly wet afternoon in East London in a fantastic
atmosphere inside the Boleyn Ground, Spurs eclipsed the Charlton
comeback to produce the performance of the season (so far) to
knock out a gallant West Ham team who’d previously accounted
for Man U and Sunderland. Spurs lined up with a decent first 11.
Young filled the problem position of left wing back, while
Iversen played in the right wing back role. This allowed Clemence
to move into the middle, and Rebrov returned up front. West Ham
were buoyed by the return of Kanoute, Di Canio and Stuart Pearce.
Both team had early chances – Kanoute
had an effort that was easily saved by Sullivan, while Rebrov
should have done much better than blasting over the bar when a
Ferdinand flick put him through on goal. The early chances set
the pattern of the match, which was open and flowing.
I’ve given Graham plenty of (deserved)
stick over the last 15 months, but today he got it right. Playing
Young at left wing back and Clemence in the middle was the
correct thing to do, and the positive tactics employed were as
refreshing as they were necessary.
As the game went on Spurs got on top. Freund
was brilliant in his man to man job on Joe Cole and King and
Clemence were all over the midfield defending well and supporting
attacks. Clemence was in one of his “going” days and
had his best match for a while.
Ferdinand was very alert up front and was a
handful for the West Ham defenders all afternoon. He found
himself through on goal after about 10 minutes and was just about
to pull the trigger, when Stuart Pearce dived in for a great
blocking tackle. This was one of a number of fine plays by Pearce
who was West Ham’s best player and has been a great player
over his distinguished career.
Kanoute tried the first of a number of dives
to win penalties as he went in with the Sol man soon after but
fortunately referee D’Urso was having a better game than he
did when he was useless at Goodison earlier in the year. Ferdinand
playing like this was his last chance of cup glory was to have
our next chance when he well hit shot was turned away by Hislop,
who was again saving his best for Spurs. Les would n’t be
Les if he did n’t have at least one injury per match and he
needed lengthy treatment after this effort, but fortunately he
was fit to resume.
West Ham were reduced to having a few long
range efforts which all went well wide of Sully’s goal.
Iversen was not having a great match on his return at right wing
back, but did his bit, while Young was having a great match
against Schemmel and on the ground where he made his debut in Dec
98, had our next effort with a curling shot which went just wide.
This was great stuff – a good open cup
tie with Spurs playing really well. With a worldwide TV audience,
this is just the sort of performance to get kids just getting
into football hooked into Tottenham. All we needed now was a goal
to reward our good play.
Two of the young guns were to have our next
chances. Clemence did well to reach a long pass over the top, and
steadied himself before hitting a fierce shot from an acute angle,
which Hislop did well to save. Soon after a deep cross from
Freund found Young steaming in at the far post, but he downward
header across the goal went agonizingly wide of the far corner to
leave Young still waiting for his first goal in our colours.
Our prayers were answered on the half hour
mark. Young forced a throw in level with penalty area on the
Spurs left as they attacked us lot behind the goal. Freund, who
was pelted by the West Ham fans in the corner delivered a ball
into the box, which went over Iversen’s jump to Rebrov, who
smashed a fierce volley into the roof net. We all went mad. This
was great for Rebrov and the crowd for the first time since he’s
arrived had a sustained spell of singing “walking in a
Sergei wonderland”.
Spurs continued to play well and the
fantastic support were non stop in the singing, with West Ham
fans already looking demoralized. Spurs were comfortable when,
with five minutes to half time, Perry lunged into Di Canio on the
edge of the box to give away a needless free kick. Pearce stepped
forward and my mind went back to the cup final goal in 1991.
Although the freekick was different, it had the same result
smashing into the net with Sully well beaten.
This was very disappointing considering the
excellent half we were having, and in the remaining 5 minutes,
West Ham looked strong as the equalizer seemed to take the edge
off Tottenham. Fortunately half time arrived with no further
damage.
The second half was only seconds old when
Kanoute broke from midfield with a clear run on goal. Spurs
defenders closed on him as he entered the box, but thankfully
Kanoute managed to fluff the chance with a side footed shot wide
of the goal. This was a great chance and real let off.
Spurs regained their composure and began to
reestablish themselves in the match. From a Clemence freekick,
which was bobbling around, Campbell hit a great shot through a
crowd of players and Hislop somehow managed to get his hand to it
to turn it wide. This was to be a temporary reprieve for the
Hammers as soon after Rebrov latched on to a Ferdinand flick and
after an excellent first touch slipped the ball through Hislop to
send us wild with delight once more.
West Ham tried to respond through a Carrick
shot, but Sully was again alert to save well and they were soon
to fall further behind when Doherty rose high and unmarked on the
back post to guide a downward header into the net from a corner/freekick.
2001 really has been his year.
Spurs looked more comfortable with the two
goal cushion despite all the best efforts of a battling West Ham
team. Young’s excellent performance against Schemmel, saw
the Frenchman removed for the Bulgarian international Todorov,
who had an immediate impact.
With the Spurs defense stretched, Young
tried to intercept a wide pass, but only succeeded in turning the
ball back across his own goal and as Campbell slipped trying to
intercept, Todorov was on hand to shoot into the corner to reduce
the deficit with 18 minutes plus injury time to go.
Young had a good chance to redeem his error
soon after but chose to shoot when a pass to Ferdinand could have
killed West Ham. With 10 minutes to go Cole twisted and turned on
the edge of our box, before getting in a shot that Sully gathered
at the second attempt. This was to signal a torrid 10 minutes
– shots from Di Canio and Lampard, together with a great
shot from Kanoute and an even better save from Sullivan. The last
danger came from a couple of corners in injury time and a couple
of brave scrambled saves were greeted with great relief by the
Spurs fans.
At the final whistle, Campbell dashed
towards the Spurs contingent, followed by the rest of the team
and everyone celebrated in style. Rebrov threw his shirt into the
crowd and these were great scenes to end the match. One of the
best matches for years for Spurs and a great win to set up a
third semi final meeting in 10 years with the Goons, three days
before the 10 year anniversary of the 3-1 win in 1991. Lets hope
for a similar performance and result
Sullivan (9/10) – Another set of
brilliant saves just when he was needed – again a true hero
Doherty (7/10) – A fine match
against the West Ham attack and took his goal well
Campbell (8/10) – Was up for
this like no other a produced another great performance, and was
unlucky not to score. His reaction at the end said it all –
a True yiddo, who just wants to be a winning Yiddo
Perry (6/10) – Played well and
did some good defensive work, but gave away a couple of dangerous
free kicks, one of which resulted in a goal
Young (8/10) – A great match in
what could be his position at left wing back for us. Strong
defensively and nearly scored a couple, although he was at fault
for the second goal.
Freund (8/10) – For the second
time in six weeks he completely neutralized Joe Cole and had a
fine match in the midfield battleground. This was his sort of
match and he was great.
King (7/10) - A class act in the middle and did well for the team in attack and defense
Clemence (7/10) – His best match
for ages restored to the middle of the midfield and like King did
lots of good work all over the pitch.
Iversen (6/10) - A tough match
to return from injury in, but without doing anything spectacular,
did his bit for the team.
Rebrov (8/10) – Missed a good
chance early on but took both his goals brilliantly and had a
good all round match
Ferdinand (7/10) – Looked up for
this match and played really well causing West Ham problems every
time he had the ball