Saturday 8th December 2001, 3.00pm

FA Premiership, The Valley

CHARLTON ATHLETIC 3 (Stuart 4, Lisbie 20, 76)

Kiely - Fish, Costa, Fortune - Young, Stuart  (Bart-Williams 84), Jensen (sub Konchesky, 90), Parker, Powell -  Lisbie , Euell (sub Johansson, 84)

Sheringham

Rebrov

Poyet 1 (86)

Taricco

Anderton

Bunjevcevic

Davies

King

Richards

Perry

Sullivan

Subs not used: Keller, Gardner

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1  (Poyet 84)

Referee: - Steve Dunn

Attendance: - 25,125

The prospect of going second in the league proved too much for Spurs as we were well beaten by a spirited Charlton side on a freezing cold afternoon at the Valley. Despite having a number of chances, Spurs did not play up to their best and gave Charlton a two-goal lead, which we never looked like getting back.

Away day Jonah - If you see this man at a Spurs away match, prepare yourself for the worst!

Charlton is probably one of the worst served stadiums in terms of pubs and we had a couple of pre-match pints in the Cole Hole on the Strand before getting the train to the ground.

On the journey to the game, my mate Jason reminded me of his terrible record watching Spurs recently. His three previous matches this season have been at Blackburn, Liverpool and Leeds (the scenes of our only away defeats) and his only win last season was at Orient! 

Despite Jay being a top bloke I think we should start a campaign to ban him from Spurs matches and it should be noted he will be going to both Southampton and Villa!

The Valley has been done up a bit since last season and it looks quite a nice little ground, although I find it disconcerting that the home fans applaud when the matchday announcer introduces the players officials and supporters of Tottenham – there’s something not right about that.

I swear their tops are becoming more Red in colour, which added to the South London factor only adds to my mistrust.

 

Spurs lined up without Freund who was serving a one match ban for his fifth booking picked up at West Ham and he was replaced in the middle of midfield by Bunjevcevic. Treacle filled in at left wing back for Ziege who has a knee problem with Davies continuing at Right wing back – despite former England world cup wing back, his holiness Anderton, continuing to pretend to everyone he was a central midfielder. Rebrov started up front as Ferdinand failed to shake off his ankle injury, and it was good to see both Keller, Gardner and Iversen return to the bench.

The Spurs fans were in the Jimmy Seed stand – named after the former Spurs player and Charlton manager.

Jimmy Seed was born in Durham and joined Spurs after serving in WW1 in 1920. Playing as an inside forward, he won the Cup against Wolves at Stamford Bridge in the Jinking Jimmy Dimmock final of 1921 and also 5 England caps while with Spurs.

He played 254 matches for Spurs scoring 77 goals (22nd leading scorer for Spurs, level with Archie and two goals more than Crooksie) before he was sold to Sheff Weds in 1927.

He later went on to manage Charlton for 23 years, bringing them up from Div 3 to Div 1 and to two cup finals, which they won one. A true hero for both clubs and a ringer for Nicola Berti!

On a much sadder note, Jason Euell returned to the Charlton first team after missing the last three matches after his two day old daughter died. Our thoughts are with him and his family at this sad time.

Spurs kicked off attacking the Jimmy Seed end.

The home fans were actually quite noisy for a change and while the Spurs fans started off strongly as you would expect, the noise began to recede along with our performance in the match.

Charlton had the first attempt on goal when a move down their left resulted in a low shot from Baldie Jensen which Sully did well to turn for a corner. It was only a temporary reprieve.

In a nothing situation a minute later, Richards seemed content to let the ball go out of play and Sully had come from his goal to help out before a Charlton player nipped in and squared the ball to Stuart who was alone on the penalty spot and he had the simplest of tasks to slot the ball into an empty net. A real shocker of a goal and 100% the fault of Richards who error prone start to his career at Spurs continues

I’ve never rated Richards – at £10m or £1m – and one the things I wrote about the sacking of the Goonersaurus was that it had saved the club wasting £10million on a 27 year old cap less player with only two season of Premiership experience. When it became clear that we were going to sign him I tried to convince myself that he would somehow morph into a quality centre back but overall despite a couple of good moments I have been less than impressed and he needs to improve a hell of a lot if he is to justify a place in the starting line up when we have King, Gardner and Doherty all fit. Mr Ed, with bells!

Richards nearly redeemed himself soon after with a firm header from a good cross, but unfortunately the ball fizzed a yard over. As the pattern of the match began to form, even at 1-0 down it seemed that it might be one of those days for Spurs with Charlton looking dangerous on the flanks and finding plenty of space to play inside the Spurs half.

While the match stats might reflect that we had a lot of the ball, we did not do much with it. Virtually every Spurs player was guilty of sloppy play and giving the ball away too often, with the most high profile offender being Lady Anderton.

Our misery deepened on 20 minutes when Young ran into what seemed a dead end of Ledley King, but somehow the ball broke to the lively Lisbie inside the right-hand side of the box and he smashed the ball past Sully from 15 yards. Bollox L

Soon after Charlton went 2-0 up there was crowd trouble in the Spurs end with a bit of a punch up and thoughts turned to the Cup win last season when similar scenes of Spurs against Spurs preceded a magnificent comeback from 2-0 down to win 4-2 – although this time we had the excellent Dean Keily rather than Sasa Ilic to beat and thoughts of a repeat were not harboured very seriously. Keily who also had an excellent match against us last season played another blinder today, although it is comforting to know that he does not save it all for us as in the pre match build up he received his player of the month award for the third consecutive month.

With the 2-0 lead, Charlton were content to concede much of the ball to Tottenham and this only served to show how out of form we were. Sheringham ran and ran – picking the ball up from the back three as well as being the most dangerous striker – but with Anderton, Bunje, Treacle, Davies all having off days and Rebrov not getting into the game enough it was an unequal struggle for the great man.

Despite playing poorly we had plenty of chances. Ex-Spurs Young was booked for clattering Treacle but we wasted the free kick. Anderton jinked his way into the box, but could not find a Spurs player with his cross, and later screwed a shot horribly wide when the goal beckoned after a Spurs move down the left. Sheringham and Poyet also had shots, which troubled the Spurs fans behind the goal more than Keily. At the other end, Charlton nearly scored again when Mr Ed lost the ball and allowed a Charlton player a clear run on goal, which fortunately for us resulted in a shot that went wide. The last action of the half was a Sheringham shot, which Keily did well to turn for a corner, which like most other stuff from the boot of Anderton, came to nothing.

At half time I had a chat with DINKT Spurs quiz team member and MEHSTG fanzine contributor Lee Dumont. We half-heartedly thought of the cup game comeback but the general feeling was that it was difficult to see Spurs getting anything from the match. Of more interest to us was doing Spurs fan watch and we spotted Jurgen, Sugar the tramp and a new one for Lee was Cyril Smith who was directly in front of me. I also spoke to Mally from Cumbrian Spurs and my heart goes out to him travelling down from Carlisle to watch Spurs play like this!

Spurs started the second half in the 3-4-3 formation Hoddle used in the Cup Semi Final against the Scum with Iversen replacing Bunje and playing as a wide right striker, with Rebrov wide left and the wing backs reverting to wide midfield roles.

Charlton started the half as they started the first and should have gone further ahead when Richards was easily beaten on the left touchline by Lisbie who outpaced him into the box and shot across the goal. Fortunately the ball went wide but Richards was again exposed and his short strided running style does not make him look very clever (he runs as if he has his bootlaces tied together)

The last few matches have exposed a weakness in the Spurs defence to pacy strikers. Two bob players like Hayles and Boa Morte were made to look ok when they used their pace in the cup game at Fulham and again today Lisbie was causing all sorts of problems for Spurs.

At some point during the second half I inadvertently phoned Lee as I failed to lock my key pad and he was “treated” to 3 minutes of Glenn Hoddle’s Blue and White Army along with a load of moaning and swearing for which I can only apologise. I’m just glad it was him and not one of my work contacts!

Spurs first chance of the second half came from being given an indirect free kick in the box for Keily picking up a back pass. Unfortunately Anderton stood over the ball, which was soon whistling its way high into the crowd at the Charlton end. Another chance gone begging.

Iversen who generally did ok on his comeback was through on goal on the hour. One on Ones are not his speciality but I was dismayed that he did not even have the bottle to shoot – instead squaring the ball to a Charlton defender. One of the things the Spurs forwards were guilty of was over-elaboration with the ball – choosing an extra pass or 10 when sometimes a shot would have been just as effective. Rebrov did get the ball in the net a minute later, but the flag was up for offside long before.

Losing 2-0 was bad enough – but bringing Sherwood on was the last straw. This was the footballing equivalent of conceding the game. To make the appearance of Sherwood more palatable, I tried to get a few shouts of “Timmah” (re the kid in the chair in South Park) but it did not catch on.

While much of this match will be instantly forgettable – a classic “Sheringham corner” was played out with the man himself getting on the end of it and smashing a brilliant shot which Keily did one of the saves of the season to tip over. At 2-1 and on the offensive Spurs might have got something out of the match in the 15 minutes that remained.

As Spurs committed men forward we were always going to be vulnerable to an attack on the break and after Treacle lost the ball Lisbie raced thro the middle of the pitch and shot thro Sully’s legs when he reached the box. It was not a good effort by Sully when you think of how good he has been on one-on-ones in the past but when a striker has a clear run on goal with only the keeper to beat, you cannot blame the keeper too much.

Possibly the most disappointing site of the match was the mass exodus of Spurs fans after this goal. Why the hell these people left is beyond me and they let Tottenham down by doing this.

With 6 minute to go, Spurs finally got some reward for all the pressure when Poyet hooked a brilliant 20 yard shot into the net. Even after getting a goal back, we had enough chances to level the match with Poyet and Sheringham both having good chances which they could not convert.

The ref put us out of our misery and we trudged off into more misery as my attempts to find a non existent pub resulted in a 20 minute walk in the cold to North Greenwich. A bloke next to me near the end of the game said this result had been coming and he’s probably right. This was by far our worst performance of the season and we have not been as good in the last month despite the good results but putting it in context this was only our second bad performance of the season and only our second defeat in 10 with 7 wins in those matches.

Hopefully this will serve as a wake up call so that we don’t cock it up against Bolton in the Cup on Tuesday – our most important match of the season so far. Come on you Spurs. Fortunately for Spurs – Jason Barnett will not be attending this match! (Sorry Jay)

The Word of Hod

"We had our chances in the second half and we actually dominated the game. But when you go two down away from home you are against it. Their third goal was a sloppy one - you can't give goals away. On the statistics it will look as though we might have deserved something from the game."
”I think Dean Kiely's save from Teddy Sheringham was the key moment, it was a wonderful save and at 2-1 we might have been standing here with something to show. Had we got the third goal it might have been different, but they then went and got that third goal and it was the key. To be fair to Charlton, they worked harder than us, particularly in the first half, and they got their just rewards."

Sullivan (6/10) – No chance with any of the first two goals, although he could have stayed on his feet longer for the third goal which was straight at him. Did ok otherwise apart from hoofing the ball to often for Rebrov to compete for in the air.

Davies (5/10) – Not as comfortable as wing back but did his best against an experience opponent (Powell) and while it was not his best match there will be more to come from Davies in a Spurs shirt once he gets a chance to shine in his best position in an advanced role in the middle of midfield

Perry (5/10) – Got a lot of stick for his poor distribution, and much of it deserved as he must have learn by now that just hoofing the ball up field is not good enough at Tottenham anymore.

Richards (5/10) – A horror show of a performance, being solely culpable for giving Charlton the lead in the 4th minute and unconvincing for the rest of the match. I have yet to be impressed by Richards and this performance on the back of some of the other ones leaves a lot to be desired and I hope Hoddle does not just pick him cos he paid the money for him and plays our three best players rather than our three highest reputations at the back. This was only Richards 9th match for us so he has plenty of scope to improve but he has a long way to go to prove he is good enough to play for Tottenham at the moment.

King (5/10) – Another off day for Ledley on the back of the less than convincing performances against Fulham and Bolton, but I’m confident that Ledley will soon return to his best.

Taricco (5/10) – Returned to the first team at left wing back and while he was ok, it was not one of his better matches.

Anderton (5/10) We cannot afford to have this ponce mincing round the central midfield. Yesterday we were short of a right wing back and even though he has played in this position for England in the world cup - he would not be moved from the centre, leaving Davies to do the best he could. Anderton can't/won't head the ball, passing is patchy these days and tackles like a girl – what part of that marks him out as a central midfielder of a top 6 team?

Bunjevcevic (5/10) – Was n’t as effective in his central midfield role and we did miss Freund, but was a bit unlucky to be subbed at half time in the tactical reshuffle.

Poyet (7/10) – Scored a cracking goal and along with Sheringham one of the few players to come out of the match with any credit.

Rebrov (6/10) – In many ways a typical Rebrov performance. He ran and worked hard but was mostly ineffective and did not receive much in the way of good supply with many long balls aimed at him

Sheringham (7/10) – Ran and led the team by example and was denied a goal by the save of the season from Keily. Just about the only Spurs player, along with Poyet who did not deserve to be on the losing side.

Subs:

Iversen (6/10) – Came on at half time and was quite effective in a wide right attacking role. Lets hope he stays fit and finally starts to fulfil his promise

Deadwood (5/10) – Bringing him on was almost the same as waving the white flag. His big head bobbed about in the midfield to no effect and had appalling shot near the end. Lets hope this 25 minutes was to put him in the shop window for some other poor bastard to take off our hands

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