Saturday 29th December 2001, 3.00pm

FA Premiership, Villa Park

ASTON VILLA 1  (Angel pen, 95)

Schmeichel, Mellberg, Staunton, Wright (Stone 71), Boateng (Taylor 87), Hendrie, Kachloul, Samuel, Angel, Vassell, Merson

Sheringham

Ferdinand (Rebrov 82)

Poyet

Ziege (Gardner 83)

Anderton

Freund

Taricco

King

Richards

Perry

Keller

Subs not used: Sullivan, Sherwood, Davies

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Ferdinand 38)

Referee: - E Woolstenholme

Attendance: - 41,134

A 95th minute penalty equaliser was a cruel end to what was a fine Spurs performance and completed a miserable Christmas period where we have only picked up one point from nine. After the disappointment of the late equaliser has died down, the players can be pleased with a much better performance than of late and although the loss of two points at the death means we are now 5 points off 6th place in the league, our slump in form is hopefully over.

The Villa away trip is always a good one for me as I meet up with an old mate who is a Villa fan. After recent horror stories with Virgin trains, I decided to avoid them and go via Chiltern railways and it proved a wise choice – saving money and getting there on time. Along with the awayday Jonah, we met up with the Brummies in the Sack of Potatoes at Aston University and then stepped back into the 1970s in the Turks Head, before having the usual mad rush to the ground in a cab. 

The Holte end

 Villa have a famous old ground which has played host to many semi final wins for Spurs and although my first visit here resulted in a comeback from 2-0 down to score 3 goals in 6 minutes (Hoddle 2, Jones) at the end to win 3-2, I have not seen us win here since the semi in 87.

On entering the ground, I had the most disgusting bit of food I have tasted at a match for years – it was meant to be a burger I think and it was f**king orrible.

 From that shock came another when the team was announced and we heard that Sully was dropped. I cannot say I was happy about this – sure Sully has not been at his best lately but in terms of mistakes that have cost us goals – he has been no worse than Richards, and was excellent in the second part of last season. The decision proved to be a correct one as Keller was excellent but I cannot help feeling a little sorry for the current player of the year.

I had a feeling that Mr Ed would force his way back in the team in place of Gardner and they were the only changes from Southampton – although fortunately all the sloppy play and lack of effort that has characterised our last two performances was also absent.

 

 Villa had their usual ragbag of nearly men, along with the warty witch faced Merson, who never fails to make me feel anything less that nauseous, but could not find even a place on the bench for Ginola, who deserves to be rescued from this den of mediocrity.

On a bright, crisp winters afternoon, Spurs kicked off attacking the Holte end in front of one of Villa’s biggest crowds of the season – presumably all the Brummies have been saving their pennies to watch some of the “Glenn Hoddle Sunshine Football” which has been lighting up our season.

Villa fans had a Gregory out banner and were alternating between Gregory and Ellis out when they could be bothered to sing during the match, which only goes to show how far we have come – our battle has been won, and we are now enjoying the fruits of the March 2001 revolution.

The players come out at the start of the match

The opening period of the first half was dominated by Anderton and Freund - for once winning the midfield battle, and Ziege, sporting a skinhead haircut, looking a constant menace with plenty of space down the left-hand side. We had a shout for a penalty in the first minute, but as usual play was waved on by a ref who for the most part was ok.

Villa’s first chance came when Vassell beat Mr Ed but could only find the side netting with his shot. Mr Ed, probably under strict instructions to do nothing fancy, was generally ok and while Gardner remains an excellent long term prospect, Hoddle was probably right to have Perry’s old equine head at the back for this one.

I have not been that impressed with Richards previous contributions in a Spurs shirt, but he was much better against Villa and did a good block and then a brilliant saving tackle on the lively Vassell when things looked bleak for Spurs in the first 20 minutes. Along with Ledley who had another good match at the back, the back three as a unit had their best game for a while. Keller was well up to his first serious test saving well from Kachloul and also looked the part at the back when saving from Merson later on.

At the other end, Ziege managed to go round Schmeichel but could not find Sheringham with his cross  and soon we looked to have gone in front when Ferdinand got on the end of a Freund throw that was flicked on by Richards, only to see his header hit the post and rebound back into Schmeichel’s arms as Ted lurked for the tap in. This was agony as from our low position at the other end of the ground we could follow the ball goalwards only to see it hit the post when it looked to be going in for most of the way.

As Spurs ran the game from the midfield, the pressure on Schmeichel's goal began to build. Ziege again crossed only for Schmeichel to whip the ball off Sir Les’s head, but it was only a temporary reprieve.

Ziege, midway inside his own half on the left touchline sent a long diagonal pass forward to Sheringham just inside the centre circle in the Villa half. Fooling everyone, Teddy dummied the ball and it ran on to Ferdinand who was clear on goal. Les hit a low shot which clipped Schmeichel’s foot and looped up. Again the ball seemed to take ages to come down and go in, but you could tell that it was a goal as Sir Les escorted the ball in without looking unduly fussed.

Sir Les celebrates his goal with Ted

 A goal from the Sheringham book of magic, which was Sir Les’s 150th League goal (he has 29 in 99 league appearances for us, and 33 in 123 total appearances for Spurs). It would be fair to say, Villa looked pretty deflated by this goal and it would have been good if we could have gone on to score the second goal during the final few minutes of the half.

Villa sloped off to a chorus of boos at half time and we thought the game was there for the taking.

At half time it was good to finally meet up with fellow away season ticket holder Steve Marson (the latest in a long line of people to say that they’d never recognise me from that photo on the editorial page).

Ali and Paul Smith from the THST were also around in our little section, as was Rosie and we got to look at his poor battered programme

Villa came out a much more determined team in the second half, but for 49 minutes we held them at bay reasonably comfortably. Keller saved well from Hendrie at the start of the half as what seemed corner after corner came to nothing for them.

The Spurs fans were in decent voice throughout the match (a proper kick off time and a few beers making up for the disappointing showing at St Mary’s), and even found time to get the “can’t smile without you” song out, along with the “we want Ellis out” – a quality effort all round and although the view could have been better, at least we had a good amount of noise from our section.

For much of the second period we were content to deal with the Villa pressure as they began to run out of ideas, but we did have a couple of chances to make the game safe. Poyet had a deflected shot which Richards tested Schmeichel from the resultant corner.

Whenever our solid defence was breached, Keller was excellent as a last line of defence, and produced an excellent saves from a Vassell, Angel and Staunton headers with about 10 minutes to go. We’ll need to find a decent song for him, as the current “USA USA” thing is not to my taste

Inside the last 10 minutes, Rebrov and Gardner were introduced for Ferdinand and Ziege, although I think Rebrov would have been better employed coming on for Poyet who’d contribution is not always at its best in the last 20 minutes of the match. Villa gave us the comedy of one short baldie being replaced by a slightly fatter short baldie as Wright made way for Stone.

The last 1o minutes should have seen Spurs score at least one of not two goals as the game again swung in Spurs favour as Villa ran out of ideas completely. Rebrov was lively when he came on, as was Gardner, who although was brought on to be more defensive minded than Ziege found himself in the Villa box more often than in our own defending. One classic situation saw Sheringham get given the ball clear on the edge of the box. Rather than have a shot, Ted chose to roll the ball sideways to Gardner and the ball was eventually blocked. Surely this was walk the ball in the net taken a step to far – Ted should have shot and a goal then would have sorted the game.

The 4th official – as he has done in every away match this season when we have been winning held up the board saying 4 minutes! This was greeted with a chorus of groans – and even allowing 30 seconds for each of the 4 substitutions – it is difficult to see where the other two minutes came fro. The 4 minutes like much of the second half funnily enough, passed quite quickly (it does not normally when you are defending a lead) and when Stone delivered a long ball beyond everyone in the box – that looked to be that. All of a sudden the Holte End went up, and then I saw the Lino put his flag across his chest. Oh Shit!

TV replays later showed that Anderton for some reason stuck his arm out when there was no danger – a moment of madness and it was the correct decision. Even then we might have got away with it as Angel’s penalty went straight down the middle of the goal. Unfortunately Keller had dived to his left and had no chance.

Spurs just had time to kick off before the ref blew for full time. My mind went back to QPR on Boxing day 1978 when Peter Taylor tucked away a 94th minute penalty to earn Spurs a 2-2 draw, and as much as that was a buzz – this was a killer. I turned to my right, and there he was – the away day Jonah – a spurs supporter with more rotten luck is difficult to imagine – and I had changed my prediction from 1-1 to a 1-0 Spurs win on the prediction league, as well as having a couple of quid on the 1-0 scoreline at 15/2.

After the match, we met up with Rosie along with top Brummie Spurs fan Sharon Lucas and a couple of others in the Vine pub and I got stung for the first massive round to complete a miserable half hour. This was much better from Spurs and although it is frustrating for Spurs to lose a couple of points, it was refreshing to see a good performance and lets hope we continue this on into the new year and pick up as many points as possible to register our highest ever Premiership finish.

The Word of Hod

Glenn Hoddle was left baffled at the amount of injury time added on as Aston Villa grabbed a late, late equaliser at Villa Park. Glenn said: "It was two points lost and what disappoints and baffles me is that four minutes were added on when neither trainer had been on the pitch. "I was very surprised to see that amount of time on the electronic board. There were only four substitutions, not six, and we should have been off the pitch before Darren did what he did.

"That has cost us but we also cost ourselves because we controlled the game in the first half and should have been more than 1-0 up at half-time. "We defended superbly in the second half and didn't deserve what happened in the last minute. "Darren is adamant that it was not deliberate. The ball hit his hand, yes, but it was not deliberate hand-ball."

Glenn insisted that handball incident was the last thing Darren deserved after another fine display - his range of passing, especially in the first half, was a joy to watch. "Darren didn't justify that happening to him," added Glenn. "He was superb again and even in the last few games I felt, when we lost and not been at our best, Darren was one of our better players. His standard of consistency is there for all to see and I'm delighted with that. He didn't deserve that to happen with the performance he put in."

Keller (8/10) – Had an excellent match on his first Premiership start for us with a commanding performance and some fine saves

Perry (6/10) – A solid display at the back with the emphasis very much on safety first. While I think Gardner is a great long term prospect, Mr Ed is the better defender in terms of defending at the moment

Richards (7/10) – I’m glad to report Richards had a good game with a couple of brilliant tackles in the first half when we looked in trouble and a strong display in the second half when Villa came at us

King (7/10) – A good match as ever for Ledley who gave the in form Villa strike force nothing

Ziege (6/10) – Found plenty of space in the first half and did his bit defensively in the second period when we were under pressure. He does not seem to be in the same form as earlier in the season, but is still playing ok.

Taricco (6/10) – Did ok without being brilliant. His lack of pace and tendency to come inwards with the ball rather than go down the line has the tendency to slow up our attacks, and like Ziege, while he is not in the same sort of form as earlier in the season, he is playing well enough

Freund (7/10) – A fine match for Nutter who got stuck in and along with Anderton controlled the midfield for long periods.

Anderton (7/10) – Was in the process of having his best away match since Newcastle and along with Freund in the middle dictated much of the match, before his moment of madness in injury time which gave away the penalty.

Poyet (6/10) – One of those Poyet performances where you wonder what he does for the team when he is not scoring goals. It seems obvious to many of the crowd that he does not last 90 minutes every match, and Davies as a fresh pair of legs

Sheringham (6/10) – One brilliant dummy to set up Ferdinand for the goal and worked hard for the team, although his over elaboration in front of goal was frustrating, esp. in the light of the late Villa equaliser.

Ferdinand (7/10) – After not scoring an away goal for a couple of years, Sir Les now has two in a month, and he had a good match leading the line and remains in the best form of his Spurs career.

Subs:

Gardner (6/10) – Had a lively few minutes at left wing back and could have been involved with a late second goal for Spurs.

Rebrov (6/10) – Lively when he came on but events off the field suggest that he will not be at Spurs for very long after the Italian Transfer window opens in January.

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