Saturday 19th January 2002, 3.00pm

FA PREMIERSHIP, WHITE HART LANE

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Ferdinand 5)

Sullivan
Perry
Richards
Gardner
Davies
Sherwood
Leonhardsen
(Etherington 76)
Anderton
Taricco
(Rebrov 87)
Sheringham
Ferdinand (Iversen 45)

Subs not used: Kelly. King

EVERTON 1 (Weir 8)

Simonsen - Unsworth, Stubbs, Weir - Hibbert, Gemmill, Gascoigne (Max Moore 80), Naysmith, Alexandersson (Clarke 60) -  Ferguson ,Campbell

Referee: - Clive Wilkes (Gloucester)

Attendance: - 36,056

Another disappointing day on the pitch as Spurs could not find a second goal to win a match that we dominated for long periods without looking special, but a match that will be remembered for the gathering of topspurs regulars before and after the match.

It was great to meet up with so many of the people that have made topspurs such a pleasure to run (in the order of distance travelled ish):

·         Oystein & Wenche from the Trondheim area in Norway

·        Irish Den McGarry & Lisa from Dublin, Ireland

·        David McKean from Northern Ireland

·        Meatloaf, Anthony “Chris Evans” Slatz & the rest of the Cumbrian Spurs

·        Gordon Lynn & son Ian also from Northern Ireland via North Yorkshire

·        Lynford, Scooby, Haverhill Yid and junior

·        Fred Dowry

·        Lee Dumont & John

·        Chiefy & Tim

·        Block 27 Sean & Guest Jo-Anne

·        “Jacob Goldberg”

·        Jason Merritt & Lauren

·         And last but not least Rosie

Some of the topspurs regulars gather alongside Jacob’s Wall at the Northumberland Arms

Tony Slatz, Chiefy, Meatlof, Rosie, Oystein, Gordon (Bottom Row Betty, Jacob, Jo-Anne, Mary, Sean)

With many new faces, I was relieved to be identified by Oystein as soon as I entered the pub and in doing so alerted Lynford and the Haverhill people. David McKean also said hello when he spotted a crowd developing & fellow Northern Irish Spurs Gordon and Ian Lynn arrived soon after followed by Meatloaf and the Cumbrian Spurs, along with Rosie.

Rosie gave Oystein a great laugh by sticking some rather odd looking Norwegian tobacco stuff in a boot polish shaped container that he’d brought over from Norway up his nose when he was meant to stick it under his top lip. Oystein, to the amazement of everyone, told us that his standard drink was 4 Jack Daniels shots in a glass when he goes out - he had at least 6 of these during the day and while the rest of us would be in the Liver unit of some Hospital, he was none the worse.

It was good to meet up with “Chiefy” from the message board for the first time and find out that he lives in my old manor Victoria Park. A word to the wise will not see him go in his local the Alex with a chair leg in a plastic bag in a hurry (E9 in joke).

Meatloaf, now resplendent in a home shirt with Meatloaf 10 on the back, and I searched the pub for Den McGarry but to no avail – and even if he was in there we probably would not have been able to find him as we were looking for a couple in their fifties for some reason!

After a brief hello at Ipswich, I had a proper chat to Fred Dowry – somebody everybody who attends Spurs regularly knows by sight at the very least and I was delighted to be introduced to the writer of a number of excellent Spurs books Bob Goodwin by Fred later on.

Jacob Goldberg, who’d been a surprise absentee from his wall when we arrived turned up a bit later after an all nighter the previous night had carried on to the game. Lee Dumont thoroughly good bloke and international superstar, but again demonstrated what a top bloke he is by getting the “aaaaah Bob Wilsaaaaaaaaaaahn” comment into his latest contribution for MEHSTG and his stuff is always worth a read. Block 27 Sean Morley arrived with guest for the day Jo-Anne. Jason Merritt and Lauren from the Official site’s “Wallyboard” made up the pre-match gathering.

Mr Tottenham on his way to the Match

As we headed to the ground it was good to bump into Bill Nick – especially for those that are not able to attend the Lane regularly.

Sir Bill took the good wishes of all the Spurs fans like the gentleman he is & raised a laugh when I suggested that it could be another 10-4 (reference to the great man’s first match in charge when Spurs gave Everton their record defeat in Oct 1958).

Despite our modest recent form and the prospect of at least Poyet being rested for the Chelsea semi in the week, my optimism was sufficient to think that we might wipe away all the recent problems with a comfortable win.

Hoddle did choose to rest Poyet, but also took the odd step to rest Ledley King. While I can understand resting Poyet’s old bones for Weds, I could not work out why King was relegated to the bench, even if he has played every minute of every match so far this season (although obviously we do not know if there was any kind of injury). I was pleased to see Ant Gardner get some valuable first team experience before our big night on Weds. Leo replaced Poyet – and while the little fellow had a decent match, this would have been an interesting time to have given Rebrov or better still Davies a run out in the advanced midfield role. The other main change was Sheringham returning from suspension and young Gavin Kelly got to sit on the bench for the first time as goalkeeping back up with Keller playing in a tournament for the USA.

Everton had a motley collection of run of the mill players and talented but injury prone Duncan Ferguson but the star of the show for us was probably the last appearance of Gazza at the Lane and he got his usual standing ovation and had his son Regan as the Everton mascot.

On a sunny but clouding over cold winter’s afternoon, Spurs kicked off attacking the Park Lane goal, where all the noise was to come from the Spurs and Everton fans behind the goal. Spurs and Everton have many things in common and it is sometimes odd to hear fans other than our own singing “And if you know your history” song. Many blue Scousers regard a visit to the Lane like we do with Chelsea having only one league victory over us since the Premiership started, and fear Sir Les like no other as he has a record of something like 15 goals in 13 appearances against Everton for all his clubs.

Their Ferdinand curse struck as early as the fourth minute when our leading scorer rose smartly at the near post to powerfully head home a Leonhardsen cross from the right. A fine goal and when you see him score goals like this you remember what a great striker he has been over his career. We could not have got off to a better start and albeit briefly things looked good with Teddy and Anderton knitting play well and Leo looking lively with an number of intelligent runs.

Everton won a free kick near our left corner flag and although both Gazza’s first and returned balls into the box were met by Treacle dodgy Barnet, the second of which flicked across the edge of the penalty area and was met with a thunderous shot by Weir who sent the ball flashing into the net giving Sully no chance for what was another excellent goal by the opposition at White Hart Lane this season.

Much like Ipswich’s equaliser before Christmas, Spurs could have gone back in front within the minute when a move involving Sherwood, Leo and Les, gave the latter a chance to shot from 10 yards out which he managed to muff. Things went from bad to worse for Les when he came off worse after a clash of heads with Weir. Les played on but was not as effective after and did not come out for the second period.

This team were a shadow of previous Everton teams to visit the Lane and we were not pushed to dictate the play with the again ok Sherwood, Anderton and Sheringham in the middle, but our best player Davies was stuck out wide on the right and we could not get him in the game enough from that position. In similar circumstances in the Fulham League cup tie, Hod chose to switch Leo and Davies from attacking midfielder to right wing back respectively to devastating effect with a late winner from the Welshman, but he did not attempt to give Davies a go in his best position this time and as a result the player who gave the Everton defence a torrid time was limited to stuff from the wing back position. A disappointing under use of his great talent.

Sheringham managed a couple of efforts on goal, but while Spurs dominated the play, Everton had the best chance as the first half drew to a close. Ferguson’s header from a corner was expertly tipped over by Sully. Stubbs also gave more cause for concern from defending corners when he headed just wide from the resultant corner.

At halftime the stadium announcer introduced onto the pitch Martin Chivers and Chris Jones. Blimey, old Jonah! and I was just wondering whether Jonah still had the monks bald spot he developed late on in his Spurs career when Chiv corrected the announcer to state that it was another Welsh Wizard Cliff Jones!. Cliff Jones was great rallying the crowd for the second half with a 3-1 prediction and looking further ahead gave rousing team talk for Weds night much to the warm appreciation of the crowd. Halftime also allowed us further insight into the Iversen enigma when he and Gorman warmed up at the Paxton end– some great shots mixed in with efforts even Freund would be ashamed of.

After his four minute cameos and not getting on all the time when Ted was suspended, now having Iversen in front of him in the pecking order must have had Rebrov on the phone to his agent almost immediately – and to be fair who can blame him.

Iversen is usually out long enough for me to forget what he is really like and every time he makes a comeback I always expect to see a mid 20’s accomplished version of that player that rattled the Man U crossbar on his home debut as a teenager all those years ago. Sometimes he is that player – like when a good bit of control and vision allowed him to swing a pass out wide to put Davies in a good position, but unfortunately one of their nobodies got back to tackle.

Spurs continued to press for the initial period of the second half and while the football was more hazy than sunny compared to some of the good stuff we played earlier in the year, it was still enough for the dull Walter Smith to introduce someone called Clark in a defensive manoeuvre. His introduction was greeted by a loud chorus, of “who” which must have done nothing for the lad’s confidence but was quite funny at the time.

Gardner, who it is fair to say, was not at his best in the first half hardly needed to jump to be head and shoulders above everyone else at the far post, but his header was comfortably gathered by Simonsen in the Everton goal.

Another match at the lane and another bollock-brained ref.

As I’ve mentioned quite often in previous match reports, the sole primary qualification for being a ref is low self esteem and self loathing in real life which they overcome by getting their own back on normal people by giving contrary decisions on a Saturday afternoon to dismay of normal fans from both teams.

This ref was a shorty and although not as bad as Riley managed to miss several crucial incidents including three very good shouts for a penalty for us and one for them (although that little, now Gooner, cheat Jeffers used up their dodgy penalty quota a couple of seasons ago so they cannot really complain.)

As the game wore on and the penny dropped to the rest of the team that Davies was our most dangerous player he received more and more of the ball on the right. On one of these occasions his run into the box was ended by a blatant foul, but Shorty just waved play on in spite of the evidence – just as he did before when an Everton player used his arm when jumping for a header in the box and later on when a ball bounced up and an Everton player used his hand to knock it away. Just how they managed to spot Anderton’s Villa handball is anyone’s guess! Wankers

Richards had a great chance from an Anderton corner, but Simonsen reserved his best stop of the match to tip the shot over. Walter Smith did one positive thing during the match, and that was to take Gazza off with 10 minutes to go to ensure that he got a standing ovation from both sets of fans & if this is to be the last time we see Gazza kick a ball at the Lane, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish him all the best for the future.

With 15 minutes to go, Etherington replaced Leo and looked lively – running at Everton at every opportunity and causing them some problems by getting to the by-line a number of times outside the full back. From one such run, he delivered an excellent cross right on to Iversen’s forehead, and although Iversen met the ball well, he could not direct his header downwards and the ball grazed the bar before going over. When he did this sort of thing as a 20 year old he was unlucky – now that he is still doing it as a 26 year old it is just not good enough.

Naturally enough, when we need a lot of time added on there was only two minutes – which is a bit of a shock considering there were 5 substitutions and each one is meant to represent 30 seconds of added time  - and that’s even before we start to consider the time wasting tactics.

In the end, Everton defended strongly and did not give us many openings so possibly deserved a point for their endeavours if nothing else, but again we came close to winning a match but crucial misses and decisions against us meant that it is now only one win, two draws and three defeats in a run of matches where we should be winning three to four of the matches and not being beaten. Not being able to win was made more frustrating by having guests from abroad over to watch the Spurs………….maybe they are saving it for the Worthington Cup final.

After the match we made our way down to the Park Pub by Northumberland Park Station. Oystein was back on his standard 4 Jack Daniels and soon after we found a table the bar person asked if there was a Jim Duggan in the pub. I wondered if I’d lost my wallet or someone WH Smiths representative wanted to take me to task over the CADD article – but it was none other than “Irish” Den McGarry and his partner Lisa at the Bar, who’d been directed to the pub by Fred Dowry who joined us later after doing the same thing at the Northumberland Arms. Big thanks to Fred again.

The beer flowed as we had a good evening talking about Spurs & and it rounded off a great day if not a great match.

The Word of Hod

"It was a frustrating afternoon," Glenn admitted. "Walter (Smith) will be pleased in Everton's circumstances, they defended well, played very deep and we found it very frustrating. We had enough possession and felt we should have won the game but it didn't happen.

"The difference is scraping the top of the bar right at the death or it hitting the bottom of the bar, it goes in and we're setting here talking about another good win. Overall we deserved it. It was disappointing that we didn't win but there was nothing wrong with the performance and we can go into the next game with a lot of belief."

"Les has got concussion and it is a problem for us with Wednesday's game coming up. He will go for some scans and we'll see how he feels. But if we do lose him, then it will be a blow because he is on fire in front of goal. Les can't remember too much about what happened," added Glenn. "He came over to the bench and said he wanted to carry on, so we told him he was Pele! (the old ones are the best L) But at half-time he was feeling groggy so we took him off because we have one eye on what is happening long-term."

Sullivan (7/10) – Could do nothing with the goal, but pulled off a couple of excellent saves when needed.

Gardner (6/10) – Had an ordinary opening half which was made to look worse by an horrendous shot, a cross and pass all of which missed their targets by miles and was most unlike him. Much better in the second half though and remains a fine prospect.

Perry (6/10) – Defended well but again was more bovine than even equine when he tried to pass the ball. Why do we rely on him to take dead balls on the halfway line?

Richards (6/10) – Solid, unspectacular but did his job well against Ferguson and came close to scoring with a second half header

Taricco (6/10) – Played ok without doing anything of note. Seemed to get a couple of hefty challenges, possibly as a result of the Graveson tackle in the game in Aug

Davies (7/10) – By far the best Spurs player on the park – the only player prepared to run at the Everton defenders until Etherington came on and gave them all sorts of problems throughout the match. We should be building a team around Davies and not fitting him in here there and everywhere – and the first job for Monday morning is to get him into a new 5-year contract.

Anderton (6/10) – Solid if unspectacular – did some good stuff but was unable to find a clear cut opening through a packed Everton defence during the second period

Sherwood (6/10) – Another decent match – strong tackling in the midfield and driving forward when in possession – you cannot ask for any more than a player to do his best, which is what Sherwood is doing at the mo

Leonhardsen (6/10) – A decent match, including the assist for the goal. Leo ran and ran, and as ever showed a good understanding with fellow countryman Iversen.

Sheringham (6/10) – A fairly quiet game back after his enforced break, but the team have a better shape when he is on the pitch, linking the attack to the midfield

Ferdinand (6/10) – A fine header for the goal, but crocked soon after he was not able to put in the same sort of contribution

Subs:

Iversen (6/10) – Some good moments in a game that will help get back his first team sharpness after a long break through injury, but missed a vital header he should have scored from and won the match for Spurs at the end

Etherington (6/10) – Looked lively when he came on and should have been claiming the assist for the winner if it was not for Iversen’s finishing.  The rest of the season will tell us more about whether he is going to make it in the Prem

Rebrov (6/10) –Given an insulting 4 minutes at the end and the sooner he is on his way the better for the club as they will have some money, but just as importantly it will be good for the little bloke as it must be soul destroying sitting on the bench for a player of his reputation. While I agreed that Hoddle was right to chose Ferdinand over Rebrov earlier in the season, and while he may have given Leo and Iversen the match in front Rebrov because the Rebrov is due to be sold soon – it still does not explain why he is always given only 4 minutes which is not enough time to do anything.

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