Tuesday 1st January 2002, 3.00pm

FA PREMIERSHIP, WHITE HART LANE

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1   (Richards 45)

Keller
Perry
Richards
King
Taricco
Freund
Poyet (Sherwood 84)
Anderton
Ziege
Sheringham
Ferdinand

Subs not used: Sullivan, Gardner, Davies, Rebrov

BLACKBURN ROVERS 0

Friedel, Berg, Short, Bjornebye (Dunn 61), Neill, Gillespie (Hignett 71), Tugay, Flitcroft, Duff, Cole, Jansen (Ostenstad 79). Subs Not Used: Kelly, Taylor

Referee: - Fatty Winter

Attendance: - 35,131

Today was about 3 points sending Spurs up the league and messers Graeme (not good enough to play for Tottenham) Sourness and Light fingers back up the M6 with a flea in their ear and the former with his rabid gob shut & looking over his shoulder at the relegation trap door. Objective achieved, and although it was another scrappy display, notably in the second half, should we get past Chelsea in the League Cup semi final, we have nothing to fear from our most likely final opponents.

At 1.30 things did not look good. Lady Topspurs was ill and unable to attend meaning the away day Jonah was to watch Spurs at home for the first time this season. All Hoddle’s planning could not account for such a turn of events.

In great contrast to the away match at Ewood, which was on a grey muggy summers day, Spurs took the field on a cold crisp afternoon, with clear skies over the world famous home of the Spurs. As expected, Spurs lined up with the same team as against Villa, while Blackburn paraded new signing Andy “Andrew” Cole along with an assortment of Liverpool rejects and journeymen.

In a subdued New Years day atmosphere, Spurs kicked off towards the Park Lane, which has seen only 12 of the 37 League goals scored at the Lane go in at that end before today.

The first thing that I’m sure most of the fans from both sides noticed was the size of the ref – Fatty Winter, who evidently had several good Christmases judging by his midriff, and must be the most overweight individual since Fatty Foulke in the Sheffield United goal to have trod on the hallowed turf of the lane.

 

Professional refs – my arse! , Although to be fair he was the best ref at the Lane for a while.

Alright Fat Bloke!

After a couple of minutes the crowd held their breath, as a neat through ball from Sheringham put Freund clear on goal down the inside right channel. On his 111th goalless appearance, Freund raced towards the goal and hit a right foot shot, which bobbled its way into touch wide of the six-yard box on the other side of the goal. A real Freund moment, and he received rapturous applause as he made his way back to the middle.

Blackburn, playing a 4-4-2 chose to get a lot of men behind the ball and hit us on the break, but this allowed us to play some good football and the back three all of whom were excellent today dealt comfortably with any breaks, notably Perry who did not give Cole a site of the ball for the first fifteen minutes. Blackburn changed their formation in the second period and were much more effective with Dunn on the pitch with a 3-5-2.

 

 Anderton seems to get a lot of glowing reports and England references for just not being injured and turning up no matter how he plays, but today especially in the first half, I am delighted to report he was excellent. Hard work and non-stop running allied to his excellent football brain saw Spurs dominate the match.

Good interplay between him, Poyet and of course Sheringham saw Ferdinand presented with a chance, but he could not hit the target.

It was all Spurs and another fine move saw Ziege released down the right. His early cross was met by Sheringham’s chest, which deflected the ball goalwards but the ball was blocked on the goal line and scrambled clear.

A corner from the West Stand/Park Lane from Ziege was flicked on by Richards to Sheringham who was unmarked in the six-yard box, coming in from behind the far post as he does these days. Ted hit a fine volley but the ball was blocked on the goal line and a mad scramble ensued with Freund and Sheringham again all close to nudging the ball over the line, but again the Blackburn goal lived a charmed life.

I think the players are starting to feel sorry for old Nutter and his lack of a goal, as he takes up a new position in front of the keeper for corners, and when eventually the ball falls at his feet a yard out, surely he cannot contrive to miss. His shooting from other areas still leaves something to be desired, although one of his two long-range efforts looked to be on target before being blocked for a corner.

As I mentioned, for the last few matches Sheringham comes in from a deep position behind the back post and although this tactic nearly worked today – I would much rather him have a free role on corners, sometimes joining in with the headers, sometimes on the goal line and every now and then popping up with the “Sheringham corner” routine, leaving someone else, possibly Ziege to fulfil the back post role.

In what would have been a carbon copy of his Derby goal, Anderton finished off another good move by Spurs by slipping a perfect pass on to the run of Ziege who had got in front of his marker – but for once, his usually excellent control let him down and his first touch allowed the ball to go to far in front of him and Friedel came out bravely to smother the effort when another curling shot with the outside of his left boot right into the corner looked on the cards.

In the final few minutes of the half, Spurs lost a bit of their rhythm and the play was scrappy. Cole had a long-range effort which Winter made just about his only mistake when he awarded a corner. Blackburn had the ball in the Tottenham half but did not look too threatening, and it was more Spurs going off the boil than Blackburn getting into it.

As half time approached it was another of those occasions where you could look back on some of the play with a smile on your face, but we were still goalless and it is then that all those missed chances start to weigh on your mind. Fortunately, Spurs got at least one of the couple of goals they deserved from the half on the stroke of half time. Pressure down the left had brought a corner, which Anderton took to the near post. Ledley moved away taking two defenders with him and leaving Richards to execute a simple back flick header into the net with Friedel nowhere. A great relief and as much as I was pleased for Richards to get a goal which might help his confidence, I was also pleased at having a modest amount on him for the first goal at 33/1!

Half Time with Chivers, Perryman and Burkinshaw

The goal had perked everybody up at half time, and although we were treated to a sneak preview on the Jumbotron midway through the half, it was left to Martin Chivers to introduce onto the pitch Steve Perryman and Keith Burkinshaw.

Stevie P looked his usual self, if a little cold, and croaked out a few words in his Phil Mitchell voice about enjoying his time in Japan.

Burkinshaw looked almost exactly as he did when he took over in 1976, and his appearance at the match only served to confirm rumours that he will be taking on some sort of scouting role for the club in the near future. Along with Chivers, three Heroes

As enjoyable as the first period was, the second was something of an anti climax – with Spurs surrendering the initiative and the ball to easily and too often. Fortunately it was only Blackburn we were playing as the last time we had a second half like this was against Man U in September.

Tuggey, a little runt with long hair and a good long range shot gave us a taste of the agony to come when he curled a 30 yarder just wide. Many of the Spurs moves were characterised by passes which were 50-50’s but not in the danger areas and all too often moves broke down and we were on the back foot. 

As everyone know, Hoddle does not rate Cole and we were treated to one of his now famous air kicks when Jansen crossed from the right and the Gooner reject just swung his foot and completely missed in what was a carbon copy of his England miss against Finland.

Blackburn’s best chance did fall to Cole. A corner was headed goalwards and blocked by Keller, only for the ball to fall to Cole a couple of yards out and an equaliser looked a certainty until Richards appeared and got himself between Cole and the ball, and clearing to safety.

It was a heroic saving effort and the whole ground breathed a sign of relief.

Man of the match Deano does a brilliant saving tackle on a gooner reject

We did not have many chances at the other end, but one that we did fell to Sheringham and he tried to pass the ball in, rather than belt it when force might have been the better option. A second goal would have put us clear, but we did not look much like getting it, especially after Poyet was replaced by Deadwood.

Towards the end of the second half Anderton had to contest a bouncing ball with two Blackburn players, but rather than attempting to head the ball, Shaggy just arched his back, making sure his head was well away from the ball. A moment that had us all laughing.

Only 3 minutes injury time today, so Winter took it upon himself to play 5 and a half but Spurs held on for a win that should have been much easier than it actually was, and after sitting through 106 minutes of Spurs leading 1-0 in the last 4 days the away day Jonah finally had his win.

Hoddle tried to make the point that the Spurs players were tired in the second half, but this does not really stack up. They have played the same amount of matches as Blackburn, and considering the rotation policy/lack of effort put in against Ipswich and Southampton they should really be fresher. And even if tiredness was to blame, we had both Rebrov and Davies ready to come on to give the old legs of Poyet and Ferdinand/Sheringham a rest to drive us forward in the last 20 minutes. Hoddle’s use of substitutions although mostly ok, does give cause for concern sometimes, as does the disintegration into the same sort of mess as we did against Man U.

The Word of Hod

"It has been a very good day for us. We weren't at our best but still picked up three points. The top five is what we are trying to get into and the teams in there are three or four years ahead of us and are 95 per cent done in what they are trying to achieve.

"We're just six months into it and are only at 50 per cent. There's still a lot to improve on but we certainly have the basis. In the past Spurs sides have sometimes had a soft centre and we showed today we haven't because after the goal was scored we had to prove very resilient.”

"Three minutes turned into five - we were a bit anxious there," said Glenn. "The same thing could have happened as did at Villa Park, fortunately it didn't. The first 20 minutes was excellent, we should have been two up before Blackburn came out of the traps. That 20 minutes seems a distant memory as people tend just to remember the latter period of the game."

"They threw caution to the wind and put a lot of bodies forward. After four games in ten days we had to really dig deep today and that is a great sign as Tottenham manager because in the past Spurs sides have had a soft centre. "We showed we haven't got a soft centre and dug in and got our noses ahead with Deano's goal. There are different ways you have to win a game and see a game out - this was a resilient one."

Keller (7/10) – Did well when tested and looked safe at the back.

Perry (7/10) – Gave his best display for a while, great in the air against Cole and strong tackling when needed in the second period.

Richards (7/10) – On the back of his good display at Villa, Richards was today’s hero with the winning goal and a great late clearance when things looked bad. Still does not always convince as a Champions League quality defender, but you cannot ask more than a player to give his all and play well.

King (7/10) – A solid match for the King, who gave Jansen nothing

Ziege (6/10) – Did well going forward in the first half and did his bit defending in the second

Taricco (5/10) – Another disappointing match for Treacle who was given a good working over by Duff and was not as effective as usual going forward.

Freund (7/10) – A solid match in the middle for Nutter who gave great service to Sheringham, Anderton and Poyet, before doing an excellent man to man on Dunn when he was introduced.

Anderton (7/10) – Some of his play in the first half was top class, and although he could not repeat it in the second he battled on to have a good overall match.

Poyet (6/10) – Did a lot of work doubling up on Duff with Taricco, as well as getting involved with the fluent midfield play but was not as effective as a little while a go.

Sheringham (7/10) – Excellent in the first half, running the game with Anderton from the midfield, but did not have much of an impact in the second period and although there are valid excuses why he has not scored since the Bolton game, he does need to weigh in with a few more goals.

Ferdinand (6/10) – Did not build on an energetic start, but generally did ok without looking special.

Subs:

Deadwood (5/10) – When you have the multi million pound talent of Rebrov and Davies on the bench, the last thing you want to see is Sherwood’s wooden head being introduced for Poyet when we are on the back foot with 12 minutes to go. Suffice to say, Sherwood did nothing and could not even have impressed potential suitors Blackburn, who were best off watching old videos of Sherwood if they needed persuasion to buy him back.

Back to TOPSPURS

This report is copyright of TOPSPURS.com – do not us any of its contents on any other site or publication without permission.