|
Wednesday 8th August 2001, 7.50pm |
Bill Nicholson Testimonial, WHITE HART LANE |
||||||||
|
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Ferdinand 14, Poyet 30, Iversen 49) |
|||||||||
Sullivan
|
|||||||||
|
|
Doherty
|
Bunjecevic |
King
|
|
|||||
|
Taricco |
|
Ziege |
|||||||
|
Clemence |
Freund |
Poyet |
|||||||
|
Rebrov |
Ferdinand |
||||||||
|
Subs: Iversen, Perry, Davies, Etherington |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
FIORENTINA 0
Taglialatela (Manninger, 45), Repka, Adani, Cois
(Amoroso, 58), Roberto, Di Livio, Morfeo, Rossi, Chiesa, Gomes, Pierini
(Gonzales, 58). |
|||||||||
|
Referee:- |
Attendance:- 35,877 |
||||||||
A fantastic night at the
lane, when the Glenn Hoddle inspired Sunshine football returned to the Lane to
honour the greatest manager and one of the greatest men in the club’s history.
Spurs were without Sheringham, Carr and Sherwood (hooray), but welcomed back
Taricco in place of Carr and gave home debuts to Poyet, Ziege and Bunjecevic.
Fiorentina provided talented if not determined opposition.
The two teams entered
the pitch and formed a guard of honour for Bill Nic, who chaperoned by Martin
Chivers, received a great cheer as he entered the playing arena, with
McNamara’s band playing.
Ferdinand was captain
for the night, and like the scumbag before him, chose to attack the Park Lane
in the first half. It took the crowd less than a minute before a chant of “stand
up, if you hate Campbell” made its way round from the Park Lane, and had
EVERYBODY on their feet. I even saw a bloke in front of me with a “23 – Judas
Scum” on the back of his Spurs shirt – top lad.
Just one moan – why did
we not play in White in honour of the great man? Did we really need to use this
as an opportunity to parade that new away kit? Remember in the Glory game when
Bill Nic was going mad because Nantes wanted to change their kit colour for TV.
Playing in our traditional white, was the least we could have done.
The game was played at a
decent pace for a friendly and there were plenty of bad tackles flying about.
Fiorentina had the first chance of the match when the lively Chiesa got beyond
Doherty and forced a good save from Sully, but it was Spurs who were always in
control and Ziege picked out Rebrov with a deep cross, but he chose to volley
rather than head the ball and saw his shot go wide. Ziege also had a free kick
from 30 yards, which despite going over this time means that we will have goal
scoring opportunities from anywhere within the opposition’s half.
Man of the match Poyet
tried to emulate his former Zaragoza teammate with an audacious lob from all of
50 yards, which had the awful Fiorentina keeper scrambling. It was another poor
piece of keeping which led to the opening goal. Treacle playing as right wing
back delivered a deep ball into the box which Ferdinand jumped for more in hope
than expectation, but feeble keeping resulted in the ball being dropped at his feet
and he slammed the ball home from 4 yards.
Player of the season
Sully had an iffy match and did a “Daines” when he raced out to meet Chiesa who
was onto a long ball over the top. As the ball spun off his foot Rossi raced
onto it, but blasted over as the Doc came in to cover. Lets hope Sully gets
these wobbles out of the way now and is as good as he was last season.
In an open match, Poyet
was excellent in knitting the Spurs attacks together and looks to be the
bargain of the summer. Rebrov also seemed happier in playing with Poyet, as he
always seemed to be available when Rebrov had the ball – and with Sheringham to
come – this looks to be the set up to finally make Rebrov reveal his true
talent in our colours on a regular basis. Rebrov had the next chance when he
dived in with a Viola defender on the end of a Ferdinand flick, but his diving
header went wide.
Chiesa is a player I’ve
always liked and a sublime piece of skill enabled him to sneak a lob out of
nothing that had Sully and everyone else beaten, but fortunately the ball
drifted wide. He is a class act and definitely on my wish list of players I’d
like to see at Tottenham.
Spurs did n’t always
look 100% safe at the back – but this is more to do with players learning the
system than any shortage in terms of the personnel. Bunjecevic added a
continental touch by playing as an authentic sweeper and had a good match with
the ball – but his real test will come in the pace of the Premiership.
Ferdinand who was the
central figure of the attack, also seemed to benefit from Poyet’s presence and
had a good match, and possibly should have done better when a fluent move down
the right sent Rebrov to the by-line and his deep cross could only be headed
straight at the keeper by Sir Les.
The second goal arrived
on the hour. Rebrov, who can take a decent corner whipped a ball into the
middle of the 6 yard box, Bunje on the decoy run took a couple of players with
him allowing Poyet to steal in behind at flick the ball with his left foot into
the far corner. It just reward for an excellent display by the Uruguayan who is
already a firm favourite with the fans.
As a big fan of Treacle,
it was good to see him back in first team action (and supporting a non sad
haircut) and he did his starting line up chances no harm with his usual
spirited display. This was in contrast to Ziege on the other side who seemed
less than happy with his lot at left wing back – and despite doing what he did
well and having a decent debut, seemed to want a piece of the central midfield
action.
Poyet again went close
before the break with a header from a Freund cross, after Treacle had won the
ball on the right, but it was Fiorentina who had the last chance of the half
when West Ham target Pierini thumped the ball against the post from a Chiesa corner
just before the halftime whistle.
Half time allowed a
number of former players on the pitch – presented by Martin Chivers, they were
led by Cliff Jones, Mel Hopkins, Tommy Harmer, Len Duquemin, Bobby Smith, Les
Allen, Dave Mackay (who ran on to a great cheer), Alan Mullery, Ralph Coates,
John Duncan, John Pratt, Mark Falco, Terry Naylor, Gary Mabbutt (the loudest
cheer) and Ronny Rosenthal. A great scene, but why no Greavsie?
Spurs made only one change at half time, with Iversen replacing Ferdinand, and
it was n’t long before he made his mark with the goal of the night. Poyet was
at the heart of the goal – running with the ball before trying to find Iversen
on the edge of the box. This was not a good pass and was blocked only for the
ball to come back to Poyet, this time he looked right before slipping a perfect
reverse pass through to Iversen who dinked the ball over the advancing Arsenal
reject Manninger, who was roundly booed everytime he touched the ball.
The game was played at a
slower pace in the second half and Fiorentina made a number of changes to their
line up. Rebrov managed a fierce shot after good work from Poyet allowed Ziege
to play him in with an excellent pass. Iversen and the impressive Davies also
tested the ex-goon keeper, but he just about did enough to keep Spurs out,
while Fiorentina had the ball in the net at the other end only for the goal to
be ruled offside.
The jumbotron picked out Bill Nicholson at the end and the near full house crowd gave him a rousing cheer and could have left him in no doubt that he is loved by everyone at the Lane
Sullivan (6/10)
–
Taricco (7/10)
–
Ziege (6/10)
–
Doherty (6/10)
–
Bunjecevic (7/10)
–
King (7/10)
–
Poyet (8/10)
–
Freund (6/10)
–
Clemence (6/10)
–
Ferdinand (6/10)
–
Rebrov (7/10)
–
Iversen (6/10)
–
Perry (6/10)
–
Davies (7/10)
–
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.