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Monday 3rd
December 2001, 8.00pm |
FA PREMIERSHIP, WHITE HART LANE |
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TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Poyet 47, Ferdinand 48, Sheringham 86) |
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Sullivan
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Perry
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Richards
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King
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Davies |
Freund
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Poyet 1 (47) |
Anderton
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Ziege
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Sheringham
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Rebrov (Leonhardsen 88) |
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Subs not used: Beasant, Thatcher |
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BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Rickets 8,
Wallace 56)
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Jussi Jaaskelainen, Bruno N'Gotty,
Mike Whitlow, Gudni Bergsson, Simon Charlton, Ricardo Gardner (Jermaine
Johnson - 87), Kevin Nolan, Gareth Farrelly (Bo Hansen - 87), Per Frandsen,
Rod Wallace, Michael Ricketts (Dean Holdsworth - 74) |
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Referee:
- Durkin |
Attendance:
- 32,971 |
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Spurs move up to 5th
on the back of our 7th win in nine matches after a thrilling
comeback inspired by second half sub Les Ferdinand against a well organised and
determined Bolton side. Spurs will not face many better organised sides than
Bolton at the Lane this season and after away draws at Leeds and Arsenal to add
to their win at Man U – the merit of this hard fought victory should not be
underestimated.
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Before the match, Willem Korsten was introduced onto the pitch to give a farewell wave to the crowd before going back to Holland and got a generous round of applause from the Spurs fans. While most of the media suggested that there
were doubts over several of the Spurs players, my snout at the training
ground had identified the starting line up yesterday evening – suggesting
that Hoddle had his team well prepared. Poyet returned in place of Leo, with Davies
dropping back to right wing back to cover for Taricco. Richards came back in
for Bunje and Rebrov retained his place up front with Sir Les taking his
place alongside the other displaced players on the bench. |
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Former Spur Gundi Bergsson
skippered the Bolton team which, although made up mainly of journeymen, were much
greater than the sum of their parts with the tactical know how of former
Trotters defender Sam Allerdyce at the helm.
On a chilly evening, Spurs
kicked off attacking the Park Lane, and were nearly gifted a goal after a
minute or so when a Bergsson back pass went just wide of the far post as the
stranded past the Bolton keeper.
The pattern of the game was
set from the early moments with Bolton defending deep and relying on Wallace
and Gardner supporting the lone striker Ricketts up front. This allowed the Spurs
midfield and back line plenty of time with the ball but gave them problems in
trying to get past the wall of Bolton players lined up on the penalty area.
As well as looking strong in
number at the back, Bolton seemed lively on the break with Ricketts in
particular looking a handful and what we could not afford to do is give away a
goal, but on 8 minutes a ball to the left hand edge of the Spurs box was
flicked on to Ricketts on the D. He shaped to shoot and Ledley turned his back
to block him, but Ricketts turned to his left and hit an accurate shot into the
corner. An excellent individual goal, although Ledley could and should have
done better (The fact that Ricketts is a star of my “RSol Campbell’s Gloria
Gaynor record collection” fantasy football team did not make it any easier)
Spurs nearly levelled minutes
later when Poyet was fouled 25 yards out slightly to the right of the goal.
Ziege hit an excellent left footed free kick, which Jussi Jaaskelainen did
brilliantly to turn around the post for one of the best saves seen at the Lane
this season. The corner produced a goalmouth scramble with Poyet inevitably in
the thick of things but it came to nothing.
Bolton
were taking every opportunity to hit Spurs on the break and they seemed to have
everything going for them - a goal
up, defending well and looking dangerous on the break. Spurs had plenty of the
ball and were admirably patient with it with many square passes before someone
was released with the ball, but I felt that we could have done with someone to
carry the ball at Bolton – and Hod must have been thinking the same thing
judging by the half time turnaround.
Anderton
saw a lot of the ball and while he did some good stuff, the number of misplaced
passes he makes these days is something he needs to sort out. Sheringham was
everywhere – collecting the ball from Perry at the back, mixing with Anderton,
Ziege and Davies in the middle as well as playing as a striker – in much the
same way Beckham seems to be trying more than anyone else for England – and he
is a credit to hold the distinction of Tottenham Captain.
Freund
was having another good match in the middle, scrapping with the Bolton players
and even treated us to an “Easyjet” effort which just dipped before it was
about to hit the upper tier – and even though we were losing, got a great
cheer. Anderton and Ziege did an elaborate load of running about before a free
kick, which Anderton delivered, into the area and Poyet went in bravely with
Bergsson but Bolton managed to clear.
On
the half hour, Bolton worked the ball to Wallace running from left to right
across the Spurs box and he hit a low reverse shot which Sully did well to
save. A second goal then would have made it virtually impossible for Spurs.
Spurs
continued to press and had nearly had some joy when a long range Ziege effort
was deflected to Ledley King who’d popped up on the right hand edge of the box.
Ledley hit low shot which was deflected wide – but Durkin, who gets shorter and
fatter every time I see him – decided not to give a corner to the crowd’s
amazement.
The
Park Lane were again leading the singing in a White Hart Lane which continues
to be much more vocal than for years and many of the new RSol and Freund songs
got a run out. Towards the end of the first half Hoddle joined Gorman and
Hughton, and the three wise men barked out instructions with a wide variety of
hand signals as things did not look to clever for Spurs.
Bolton
continued to be dangerous and it took a good block from Nutter to cut out a
cross bound for Ricketts near the end of the half. Ricketts later got booked
for an incident with Ziege and my initial reaction was that Ziege was going to
be sent off for shoving the linesman who he’d verbally had a go at before.
Luckily the Ginger cherub did not act on this.
I
had a call from Meatloaf at half time and we both agreed that from the position
we were in a draw would be ok, even though it would be disappointing in terms
of our League challenge. Hoddle had other ideas and it was soon obvious from
the vigorous warm up that Ferdinand and Bunjevcevic were doing that they were
going to start the second half.
Mr
Ed who had a decent match thus far made way for Bunje and Freund, who’d taken a
knock at the end of the first half, was replaced by Sir Les. The formation
changed to an odd 2-1-3-3-1 formation with Richards and King at the back, Bunje
sweeping, Ziege, Anderton, Davies in the middle with Sheringham, Rebrov and
Poyet as deep strikers/attacking midfielders and Les up front.
And
what a result! A minute into the half & Anderton midway inside the
right-hand side of the Bolton half, hit a long diagonal ball into the box aimed
at Sir Les. Ferdinand did magnificently to turn an ordinary ball into a
powerful looping header, which deceived the keeper and hit the far post. The
ball bounced out and hit a defender, looped up on the bar and down for Poyet to
react quickest and nod home. A fine piece of skill by Ferdinand and great
opportunism from Poyet. The worried expressions around the ground were replaced
by smiles.
In
what was becoming a copy of the Boro home game, Spurs scored within a minute to
take the lead. A pass out of defence was intercepted by Bunje who advanced with
the ball midway into the Bolton half. He passed to Les and continued his run.
Ferdinand laid the ball back to Rebrov and turned a spun off to his right.
Rebrov released a perfect pass on the end of Bunje’s run, who side footed it
into Les’s path. Ferdinand made no mistake with a curling shot into the corner from
12 yards to cap another excellent Spurs goal, in which Bunje played an integral
part.
It
seemed a lot longer than 9 minutes that Spurs were in the lead, but Rod
Wallace, who has a nasty habit of scoring against us again popped up with a
goal. He picked up the ball from a Ricketts pass and ran down the inside left
channel. Ledley tracked him, but did not force him wide and Wallace got an
ordinary shot away which Sully let go under his arm and into the net for
another un-Sully like error.
Since
his introduction at half time – Ferdinand was buzzin – as well as the goals he
was winning headers and playing really well. I have stuck up for him most of
the time in the Sir Les vs. Sir Guy debate and with 5 in his last 8 I think he
should get the nod at Charlton assuming he is fit. Rebrov did some good stuff
as well and had the ball in the net from a Ziege cross, but the effort was
ruled out for offside. He, along with Poyet had 20 yarders which were well wide
as Spurs failed to create clear-cut openings despite having a lot of the ball.
Bunje
had generally had a good match -
one 50 yard pass out to Ziege the manager would have been proud of, but he did
get caught a couple of times – notably when Holdsworth beat him to a ball and
raced towards goal. Richards was well back and things looked grim. Richards has
a funny running action, but he was quick enough to get back and block
Holdsworth’s effort and keep us in the match. While he did not have a flawless
display – this bit of defending was first class.
Spurs
continued to press and Whitlow fouled Davies on the right touchline, level with
the penalty area. Whitlow was furious with the decision and I immediately had a
good feeling about the free kick. Ziege took it and Sheringham appeared in
front of everyone to flick brilliant header into the Paxton net. The Lane
erupted and it was no more than he deserved for his excellent performance.
Spurs
hung on at the end for a deserved win and move up to 5th in the
league. The only sour note of the match was that Les Ferdinand needed an x-ray
on a damaged ankle at the end of the match. Losing him now when he is hitting
top form would be cruel and I hope its nothing serious.
The Word of Hod
“We changed it at half time and to be
fair we threw caution to the wind. We just went with two at the back, kept our
wing backs, put Les on up top and it worked a treat for us.” “I think with Sergei putting in such a
good performance last Thursday, and he played really sharp, and he scored his
goal – I think for the long term for the club it would have been the wrong
thing not to start with Sergei tonight.
“I did say to Les ‘If they go 1-0 up,
you will be used’. It was one of those situations – you could foresee something
happening like that. They drop so deep, I said at half-time ‘There’s nothing
wrong with a diagonal ball now we’ve got Les on the pitch. That option wasn’t
on for us – we were trying to be too intricate with the players we had. Les
gave us that secondary option, but I didn’t think it was going to work out that
quick, because it was very quick after half-time.”
Sullivan (5/10) –
Perry (6/10) –
Richards (6/10) –
King (5/10) –
Davies (6/10) –
Ziege (6/10) –
Anderton (6/10) –
Poyet (7/10) –
Freund (6/10) –
Sheringham (7/10) –
Rebrov (6/10) –
Subs:
Ferdinand (7/10) –
Bunjevcevic (6/10) –
Leonhardsen (6/10) –
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