Sunday 29th September 2001, 3.00pm		FA PREMIERSHIP, WHITE HART LANE
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 (Richards 15, Ferdinand 25, Ziege 45)
Sullivan
Taricco	Perry	Richards 1 (15)	King
Poyet	Anderton (Rebrov 83)	Freund	Ziege 1 (45)
Sheringham		Ferdinand 1 (25)
Subs not used: Keller, Thelwell, Davies, Leonhardsen, Rebrov
Manchester United 5 (Cole 46, Blanc 58, Van Nistelrooy 72, Veron 76, Beckham 87)
Barthez, G Neville, Irwin (Silvestre 46), Johnsen, Blanc, Beckham, Butt (Solskjaer 40), Scholes, Veron, Cole, van Nistelrooy. Subs: Carroll, Chadwick Phil Neville,
Referee:- Jeff Winter		Attendance:- 36,038

A game that will live long in the memory, although not one we will look back on with much affection as Spurs and our 3 goal lead were swept aside by a rampant Manchester United side without much of a fight in the second half. This is not good, but equally its not the end of the world. Spurs must dust them selves down and win the next two matches against Tranmere in the League cup and Derby in the Premiership in 15 days time or the season will be in danger of falling apart.

Spurs lined up with the expected 11 – with Richards coming in for his debut at the expense of Davies, but to most people’s surprise Spurs kept to the 4-4-2 system, with King slotting in as left back, and Ziege and Poyet occupying wide midfield roles. United, fresh from their midweek European defeat had a strong line up even without the suspended Keane and the injured Giggs.

Pre match I met up with Rosie, along with Meatloaf and the rest of the Cumbrian Spurs in the Northumberland Arms. (Andy, John, Greg, Tony, Mary, Bettie & Rosie – Outside the Northumberland Arms). Meatloaf had spent the last few days in London with his wife who is a specialist cake maker at a conference at Wembley, and provided two delicious cakes which I carried round in an enormous Lidl bag.

Confidence was high and a good showing from Spurs was expected. The dark skies and rain from the morning had lifted and on a muggy afternoon, Spurs again broke from the Rsol tradition, and attacked the Paxton in the first half.

Dean Richards slotted in well at the back, and confident tackles and efficient passing soon had the crowd singing “there’s only one Deano”. Spurs started ok, Anderton and Freund competing well with Veron and Butt in the middle, although even at that early stage we still looked a little vulnerable on the flanks, with the full backs not getting the necessary cover from their wide midfielder.

Spurs won a corner on the left when Irwin made a hash of his clearance. Ziege took the corner and it was met by Richards running towards the near post, who stooped to divert a glancing header by Barthez in the United goal. What a start!

Minutes later it was two. Taricco came inside and passed to Freund, who after an initial mis-control got the ball to Poyet on the right hand edge of the centre circle. For once Les timed his run from the centre forward to the inside right position perfectly and ran on to the Uruguayan’s lifted pass as United pushed out looking for offside leaving Les on his own against Barthez.

As Les steadied himself just inside the right-hand side of the box, I must admit I was not confident, but it was like the Les of old as he smashed a perfect shot into the far corner. 2-0, dreamland.

As with any match against United, many of the 50-50 refereeing decisions went their way, and they were gifted an opportunity for a Beckham free kick soon after the goal, but thankfully it was not one of his best, and Sully saved comfortably. Spurs could have scored again when good work down the right by Taricco and Poyet set up Sheringham, but his shot was blocked.

Spurs attack the Paxton in the first half

With United losing, there was never going to be only 1 minute of injury time!, and within the three minutes that were signalled Spurs kept the ball smartly playing the ball around.

An interchange between Poyet, Freund (a nutter back heel no less!) and Taricco, saw Treacle lob the ball into the area by the right-hand corner flag. Poyet ran onto it, as Irwin made no sort of effort to track him. Poyet retrieved the ball by the corner flag and came inside before hitting a deep left footed cross over the Spurs strikers for Ziege to meet with an excellent diving header.

A cracking goal by any standards, sending the German to the top of our scoring charts this season. The whistle blew for half time soon after and that was as good as it got.

I must admit I was not confident, even at 3-0 and outplaying them. I knew they could not be as bad as they were in the first half, but knew Tottenham had to be at the their best to keep them out. A fourth goal would be nice, but most importantly we must not concede early, and must not go into wholesale retreat defending our lead. 

The half was only 45 seconds old when the castle began to crumble. Cole had obviously done a few lockers at half time, and was alert enough to be first to a cross by Neville and deflect the ball home beyond a helpless Sully.

All of a sudden the confidence went from both the team and the crowd. The crowd roared back with “Glenn Hoddle's Blue and White Army”, but many sensed the potential disaster that was about to unfold, and if you watched the next 15 minutes you would not believe that the team chasing shadows, was the team that dominated the first half and were leading 3-1. Beckham had another free kick in a position he generally does well from, but again could not defeat Sully.

The referee was generally ok today, but one glaring error handed United their second goal. Spurs conceded a corner, which was met by Ronny Johnsen with a firm but misguided header, which sailed into the Paxton. Much to everyone’s disbelief, United were awarded another corner, and from this one Blanc charged in between Perry and King at the far post in exactly the same way as his fellow French World Cup winning centre back Desailly had two weeks ago, to nod home unchallenged.

Jitters at 3-1, panic at 3-2. Spurs had not mustered an attack on the United goal and were degenerating into a shambles. United were having lots of space to play and pass, and fully utilised the space between the fully back and the wide Spurs midfielders, who were guilty of being too far up the pitch. This allowed the Manchester United players to double up, and no one, let alone Spurs could afford these quality of players that sort of space. This has been an accident waiting to happen, as I have mentioned in previous match reports the weaknesses in wide defensive areas.

Spurs held the lead until 18 minutes from time when Silvestre got the better of Taricco (who was still feeling the effects of being clattered by Cole a little earlier) and picked out Van Nistelrooy who headed home from close range. We did n’t have long to reflect on taking a point from a 3-3 as 4 minutes later some neat passing released Veron through the inside left channel and his low shot gave Sully no chance in the far corner.

As soon as United took the lead that was that. Spurs failed to muster a single decent attack for the whole of the second period, and although they tried to raise the tempo, heads were down and it was all over for us. Beckham rounded off the scoring when another good passing move stretched the Spurs defence, and the ball was half cleared to him on the right hand edge of the “D”. He steadied himself and smashed an unstoppable shot into the net, again giving Sully no chance.

Beckham had been booked a few minutes earlier for trying to get Nutter booked after he had won a foul, and I swear I thought Winter was going to go over and caution him again as he went over to the celebrating Man U players in the front of the Paxton reaching for his top pocket. While it would have been madness to receive another caution for this, at least it would have given us half a smile, but Man U don’t have players sent off do they?.

We were put out of our misery soon after, and while it must have been great to be a Man U supporter today, it was a desperately disappointing day to be a Spurs fan, and everyone was very down after the match.

The 2 main reasons we lost:
1. The wide midfielders (Ziege and Poyet) did not provide enough defensive cover for the full backs - too often it was Scholes and Silvestre doubling up on Taricco and Beckham and Neville on King. This stretched the whole of the Spurs defence, and we had no answer to what were 5 well taken goals. Apart from bad marking for the Blanc goal, their goals were just good goals
2. The central midfield of Anderton and Freund was just not strong enough to stop United, and did not once in the second 45 minutes retain the ball for more than 30 seconds to stem the tide. I'm not kidding when I say we did not once get into their penalty area for the whole of the second half and our only effort on goal was a wayward 30 yarder from Ziege.

As we followed the setting sun and trudged home back down White Hart Lane, we were left to reflect on mixed emotions. Firstly, we should be pleased that we played a good first half where we again dominated the play against a top side. If the ref was n’t such a wanker against Chelsea we would be looking at 4 possibly 6 points against Chelsea, Sunderland, Liverpool and Man U, which is n’t bad

As it is, we are looking at a Spurs side in 13^th in the league that have just conceded 5 goals at home in 45 minutes, and have now lost 4 of the last 6 matches. Today was a disappointing day, but it can be forgiven as it was against the Champions and as long as it was a one off. If the game had been the other way round, with Spurs coming back from 5-0 down to lose 5-3 we would be feeling different about the game. Spurs should put this down to experience and make sure they win the next two matches against Tranmere in the cup and Derby in the Premiership to put the season back on track.

This should act as a wake up call to the management - while to good Lord Hod can feed the 5000 with a couple of loaves and fishes, he needs more for the greater challenges. But these things take time and things are most definitely getting better. This was Spurs first home defeat against United in 5 matches, in which we have scored 3-2-3-3-3 - no many teams can say that and before any miserable goon tries to take the piss at work on monday, remind them they lost 6-1 to United the last time they played them

For the stats obsessed nutters – Spurs have lost 5-3 five times before, including one result after extra time

31-Oct-25	Division 1	28,076	A	Leicester City	L	3	-	5	Osborne (3)
26-Mar-37	Division 2	12,748	A	Bury	L	3	-	5	Hunt GS, Duncan, Miller
04-Sep-57	Division 1	35,813	H	Portsmouth	L	3	-	5	Harmer (pen), Brooks, Dulin
07-Feb-73	F.A. Cup 4®	52,736	H	Derby County	L	3	-	5	(a.e.t) England (pen), Gilzean, Chivers
06-Nov-76	Division 1	28,997	A	West Ham United	L	3	-	5	Hoddle, Osgood (pen), Duncan

Lets hope its another 15 years before the next one!

The Word of Hod

"We attacked brilliantly and also nullified United's attacks in the first half, but the second half was just the opposite. We lost our belief and they got theirs from the early goal in the second half. It looks like a Jeckyl and Hyde performance from both sides.

“But a great game? I can't take much comfort from that because I've got to look at my own team. We're in the business of trying to win football matches. That's the bottom line. We've had excellent games against Chelsea and Liverpool and now Manchester United but it is no consolation when you've missed nine points."

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Sullivan (6/10) – Did some good save, but did not have much of a chance with any of the goals

Taricco (6/10) – Did well going forward, but too often was left exposed two on one in the second half.

Perry (6/10) – Did his best, but along with the rest of the defence, had no answer as Man U came charging through from the midfield.

Richards (6/10) – Made an impressive debut, scoring with a good header and doing a good job defensively despite being on the wrong end of 5 goals.

King (6/10) – Did his best as an emergency left back against Beckham, but was left exposed in much the same way as Taricco by the midfield.

Ziege (6/10) – Set up the first and scored an excellent diving header to put Spurs 3-0 up and while no one can fault his play going forward, or his commitment, he does did not do his defensive duties well and along with Poyet was the weak area of the team that Man U exploited to get back in the match

Anderton (5/10) – Anderton often struggles against lesser teams as a central midfielder, but at this level his deficiencies are exposed, and although he ran hard, he just was n’t up to it

Freund (6/10) – Ran hard and tackled and did the best he could, but could not stop United pouring forward in the second period.

Poyet (5/10) – While its harsh to criticise someone what set up the second and third goals, Poyet was a long way short of what is required at this level, and did not provide any worthwhile cover for Taricco. Poyet’s Spurs career has consisted of a stupid sending off reducing the team to 9 men at Everton and a few matches as a right midfielder where he has failed to show enough going forward, or hardly anything defensively. I’d have Davies in for the next match.

Sheringham (6/10) – Ran and tried his best, and while he had a good first half, had no joy in the second.

Ferdinand (5/10) – Oh Les! A cracking goal and 100% effort, but a display that failed to threaten United

Subs:

Rebrov (6/10) – Given even less time this week, despite the dire situation and its seems a matter of when rather than if he gets sold.

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