Sunday 24th February 2002, 3.00pm

LEAGUE CUP FINAL, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Ziege 33)

Sullivan
King
Perry
Thatcher
Taricco (Davies 79)
Sherwood
Poyet (Iversen 83)
Anderton
Ziege
Sheringham
Ferdinand

Subs not used: Keller, Gardner, Rebrov

BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 (Jansen 25, Cole 69)

Brad Friedel, Stig-Inge Bjornebye, Henning Berg, Martin Taylor, Nils-Eric Johansson, David Dunn, Damien Duff, Mark Hughes, Matt Jansen (Yordi, 74), Keith Gillespie (Craig Hignett, 77), Andy Cole

Referee: - Graham Poll, Tring

Attendance: - 72,500

Despite the great cup run, Spurs could not get it right on the day when the cup was decided and the first major final of the Hoddle era has ended in a defeat, and a major setback in terms of getting Tottenham Hotspur back to the top. The match was a fine final but the result and the performance of many of the Spurs players was a great disappointment to all the fans who travelled not only from all of Britain but from all over the world. Still we are going the right way and have the right people in control of the team and we will be back for more big finals in the near future with Hoddle’s Tottenham.

The final experience started on Friday when along with a couple of others, we were invited to be a Spurs crowd backdrop for Daniel Wynne to do a piece on BBC 1 local news in the Corner Pin. Amongst much singing and shouting the new topspurs flag which arrived that morning, along with Lee Dumont, Oystein and Tommy from Norway and myself managed to get on local TV & Daniel Wynne managed to get the “Sunshine Football” phrase another airing in the media. It was also good to have a chat with Oystein, Tommy and Ali from the Trust afterwards setting up the final weekend nicely.

I was lucky to get a hotel booked up in Cardiff for the Saturday and Sunday nights (hopefully it was from a Chelsea fans cancellation) and we arrived in Cardiff mid afternoon on the Saturday, with the rain that continued until well after we left on Monday afternoon beginning to start. The stuffed Shirts at the Football league found another way to not be able to distinguish and arse from an elbow by having Cardiff City with their notorious fans at home on League cup final weekend end, which along with the minibuses shipping lads in to central Cardiff for the weekend drink and a fight from the Valley did not make for an altogether welcoming atmosphere for the fans from Lancashire and North London. The mysterious need to book at virtually empty restaurants at 7pm if you had an English accent also made you think fondly of Wembley and the journey up on the Bakerloo line on the day.

After a nervy night and a load of greasy Thistle hotel morning nosh it was off to the match via a walk around Cardiff. Many things will fade from the memory over the years about the Final but I will always remember the rain!! It was a bit like the Newcastle away match this season but also reminded me of a place called Palenque in the Mexican rainforest! And very quickly I was soaked!

The fans mingled well without any trouble and Sourness, Hughes and Cole apart, Blackburn are not a club you can particularly dislike with the bonding of real football fans at a final coming through. We gathered at the topspurs arranged pre-match watering hole well in advance and it was a big disappointment that they chose to keep us out in the rain until well after the scheduled door opening time. A few topspurs had already gathered and we headed off to grab a section of the place for ourselves, draping the topspurs union flag over the side.

It was the largest ever gathering of Topspurs & I will attempt to give them all (in no particular order) a mention now:

Mary (Ms Nayim), Meatloaf, Betty Stevens, Tony Slatz, Scott, Oystein & Tommy from Norway, Steve & Caroline Nunn, Godders, Lynford, Scooby & Haverhill Yid, Tunde, Chiefy, Mark & Tim, Graham and Roger Carpenter, John (Hazardman), Demetris (Goonerhater), Ray O’Leary of the Terry Naylor Fan Club, Sharon Lucas, Steve Morley (MK Yid), (Stockport) Simon Ittig & group, Rosie & Mr Rose Snr, & Lauren

It was great meeting up with everyone - beer and song flowed, with the “who put 5 in the Chelsea net, arfa arfa!” being popular along with all the usual classics and when there was singing in the pub, the topspurs contingent made themselves heard in fine style. Some other fans had the “can’t smile without you” t-shirts and another group of fans raised a smile with their orthodox Jewish costumes. A great atmosphere had developed and we braved the rain with expectations high.

A full TOPSPURS match preview is available at www.topspurs.com/thfc-lcf2002.htm

A full series of pre-match pictures are available at www.topspurs.com/thfc-lcf2002(photos).htm

Again its big thanks to the snout who gave the match line up on Thursday night with the best kept secret in football being that Ant Gardner had suffered a reaction to the reserve match he played in the week and Ben Thatcher kept his place at left half back. King and Anderton returned after illness and injury, but at the end of the match, you wonder just how fit Anderton was. Apart from that it was the expected team, with Taricco keeping Davies on the bench.

Blackburn have had all sorts of disasters coming into the match, with Tugay, Short and Flitcroft all suspended and Neill cup tied. Cole was over a bout the shits in the week to line up alongside Jansen up front and old dirty cheat Mark Hughes was a surprise inclusion in the Blackburn midfield.

This was my forth League Cup final (too young for 71 & 73 but also tagged along for the Oxford – QPR one in the mid 1980’s) and it was by far the best organised before the match – with a team in combat fatigues abseiling down some ropes with flags and a simple but coherent display before the teams came out for what was to be the first final under a closed roof.

The topspurs snout again was on top form announcing at the start of the month that we would be playing in a yellow kit and they emerged with an old reworking of the unpopular (Gooner style) yellow away kit from the 1999/2000 season – a season when we crashed out of all cups by the middle of December! The Spurs supporters gathered in the South end of the stadium, with the Blackburn fans in the lucky Northern end which had seen its team victorious in all the 7 previous major football finals played in the stadium. Blackburn also had the “lucky” hotel. Not a good omens, but surely nothing could ruin our day!

Spurs kicked off attacking the Blackburn end in front of 72500 people and a massive television audience world wide, including higher viewing totals than last season’s FA Cup final. In the opening stages of what was to be an open and exciting match, the play was cagey but it became obvious that Blackburn were the team more inclined to stamp themselves on the game.

The first chance fell to Tottenham after about 5 minutes when Sheringham got the ball out to Ziege in plenty of space out on the left, & he curled a 20 yarder just over the bar. A goal then would have given Spurs the perfect platform from which to impose ourselves on the game but it did not happen and as Sheringham and Anderton failed to find their touch in the middle, Blackburn emerged as the more coherent unit without ever really threatening our goal.

Hughes, a dirty cheat for much of his career against Tottenham, had a good game in the midfield being more hungry for the ball than our trio of Anderton, Sherwood and Poyet and the Blackburn wingers played in a positive manner pushing back Treacle on the right and being allowed to go beyond Ziege on the left. This meant that Treacle spent much of the match on the back foot while Ziege had acres of space beyond Gillespie, who in turn had lots of space behind Ziege.

Despite not playing that fluently we had the next best chance of the match the outcome of which probably had a greater impact on the destination of the cup than we thought at the time. Poyet fed the ball through the middle and Ferdinand raced on to it in the clear form the left hand side of the pitch. There he was with the ball, bearing down on goal with no defenders around and only the keeper to beat. It was the Chelsea semi first leg all over again. Surely he would not try and go round the keeper again!! Shoot, chip him anything but trying to go round him. Unfortunately Sir Les chose the wrong option and as he attempted to go round him Friedel sneaked out an arm and took the ball away from Les in what was probably the best save of his man of the match performance and after a bit of a scramble Blackburn got the ball away. Oh Les!!  A goal to put Spurs in front at this juncture would probably have contributed to Spurs winning the match – but it was not to be and minutes later we were to be hit with a hammer blow at the other end.

The opening goal was out of the blue. A ball from the Blackburn left found its way out to Gillespie with plenty of space about 30 yards out. He tried a weak shot which deflected of Thatcher perfectly into the path of Jansen who reacted very quickly to smash a low shot at Sully from just in front of the penalty spot. Unfortunately for us, the ball went between Sully’s legs as he adjusted himself from the deflected shot and Blackburn were one up. This was a cruel goal and no one was really to blame for it. Ziege should have been covering Gillespie but the shot without the deflection was nothing and Jennings the master at using his legs to save shots may have done better with the shot than Sully, it was just one of those goals. Just a pity we did n’t get it at the other end!

Far from the stories of Blackburn not being able to fill their end, it was alive with lots of flag waving (they seemed to have double the flags we did) and much noise as the Spurs fans came to terms with being a goal behind. One thing that bugs me at a match is when people stand up and face behind them urging others to get singing all the time, while not actually singing or watching the match much the other way and a couple of pillocks in front of us kept doing it. Fine to encourage others to sing once in a while, esp. when singing and turning to other sections of the crowd, but to turn round and just moan at other fans for not singing when they are not doing it themselves is a farce. By and large the Spurs support was fairly good – not as noisy or consistent as it has been for some matches – but it is often difficult to get one song going amongst people spread over such a vast area.

A goal down, being out battled in midfield and our best player looking out of touch – it was not looking good for Spurs as the half hour mark approached and it could have been a lot worse as Duff’s low shot was saved by Sully who then had to thank Thatcher for a brilliant last second tackle to deprive Jansen of the rebound. Thatcher was my biggest worry before the game, both in terms of pure ability but also in temperament – but he had a fine game and despite only getting a losers medal has a lot to be pleased about on a personal level.

Hughes had committed around 4 or 5 fouls in the opening period, but like much of his career which was spent fouling defenders he managed to get away with it only for ex-Rover Sherwood to get booked for his first offence. It seemed a lot longer than it actually was between their goal and our equaliser but it was only 8 minutes.

Poyet slipped Les through again and after getting clear and getting to the by-line, he managed to look up and pick out Ziege steaming in unmarked on the far side. The time from when Les passed the ball to Ziege hammering it home must have only been a split second but it was an instant of joy, as you knew that Spurs were going to score in a cup final. The crowd went wild and all of a sudden the other end was still, and remained still until half time.

Spurs were visibly lifted by the goal and continued to play well to half time and again this was a period where if Spurs could have got ahead I think we would have gone on to win the match comfortably, and again the best chance of this period fell to Sir Les. Sherwood got the ball out to the ever dangerous Ziege and our German International put over one of the crosses which make him one of the best crossers of the ball I have seen at my time at the Lane. Les rose unmarked at the back post but could only head the ball straight at Friedel who did well to palmed it away. There are many things you can say about players when they miss like this – did well to get in the position etc – but a 35 year old former England International should hit the back of the net every time in a cup final – no excuses! Over the last few seasons we have witnessed some almost comical ways to miss a goal  - from Armo and Iversen right up to Sheringham’s goal line miss last week against Tranmere – but while you can smile about it when you are 3-0 up, at 1-1 in a cup final it is maddening, esp. when you add the one on one chance earlier in the half.

Sully made another good save, this time from Cole before the break, but as the teams left the pitch, despite not playing to our best, you thought that if we could get the second goal we should be able to go one and win well, esp. if we could improve tactically from a half time chat from Hoddle.

After a few minutes of the second half it was clear that Sourness had the greater impact at half time, with Blackburn wrestling back the initiative that Spurs had stolen during the last section of the first half. Whatever else, this game was ultimately decided by chances – those missed by our players and the two taken by Blackburn, but in terms of performance our midfield and Sheringham never ever found its rhythm – constantly harried by the Blackburn pressure game. Sherwood did not do anything majorly wrong, but he was never able to impose himself on the match like he did against Chelsea in the semis. It is questionable just how fit Anderton was as he looked laboured. Poyet as ever only flitted in and out of the game from his advanced midfield position and Sheringham did n’t manage to get much right despite trying everything. My initial reaction at the end of the match was to pin the defeat down to Blackburn wanting to win more and while I’m sure that our players wanted the trophy, there was never the edge to their game that there was and needed to be against Chelsea in the semi. Maybe our hitch free preparation and the calamitous one endured by Rovers served to give them the extra determination that we possibly had when reduced to 10 men in the 1999 final.

And that’s another galling thing – despite not being at our best we played much better in this final than we did in 1999 against Leicester in what was a dull match – but ultimately we won with a bit of luck (and a great bit of skill from two blond haired Scandinavians) at the end whereas this time, we had no luck going for us what-so-ever.

The back three were having solid matches at the back – I’ve mentioned Thatcher and Mr Ed was having his usual safe and simple approach. Ledley was also doing well and with that little bit more to his game started to bring the ball out of defence. On one of these runs deep into Blackburn territory, he got the ball to Ziege who slipped it inside to Poyet who unleashed a fine shot which produced another good diving save from Friedel – who like Joe Corrigan in 1981 and Peter Hucker in 1982 was to have a man of the match performance against Tottenham in the Cup final (and if you add Oggy’s heroics in 1987 for Coventry and Crossley saving a penalty against us in 1991 – we don’t get many opposition goal keepers having off days in finals against us)

Another turning point which could have taken the game from Blackburn but did n’t occurred when Sheringham glanced his header into the path of Poyet. The Uruguayan  rode a defenders challenge with the defenders attempted clearance hitting Poyet’s legs and leaving him clear on goal. De ja vu – part 2. A virtual carbon copy of the chance he had at the end of the first half against Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup, including the way the ball bounced back to him from the defenders challenge. Poyet, with a large section of the goal gaping chose to give Friedel no chance curling the ball high above his outstretched right hand – but too high as the ball thudded against the Woodwork and out again. A good effort BUT he really should have scored!!!! At the risk of sounding like Mullethead Francis – this was the 17th or so time we have hit the woodwork this season and if you add the khasi refereeing decisions the difference between greater success is small but a reality.

And then it happened! A long hump up the pitch did not seem a particular problem for Ledley but his initial header went across the box and as he went to get it away again, the ball was nicked away from him and Cole “stole” in to clip a little nothing shot towards the goal. Again Sully was a little wrong footed and despite getting a hand to it the ball trickled into the corner and we were behind again. Bollocks!!! A minute or so before I’d thought to myself the side who scores next will win the match – not Nostradamus stuff, but when the ball went in the horrible reality that it was not going to be our day hit me properly for the first time. And it had to be Cole – an ex-goon who scored it. A man with habits so repulsive even convicted Fraudster Graham wanted him out of Highbury (and there are plenty of rumours why he left Newcastle in such a hurry), who has an international record of one goal in 18 appearances and who has been frozen out of Man U and forced to move to relegation strugglers and after all this chose to have  a pop at Hoddle for fair observing that he took 5 chances to score one goal. A cruel irony.

With just over 20 minutes to go – I think the only Spurs people in the stadium that would have kept Sheringham on the pitch in front Iversen or even Rebrov was the management – but while I trust in their long term vision to guide us back to the top – surely it was a mistake not to remove him as he was having such a poor game? Not a knee jerk lets change something cos we are behind but a reasonable reaction to how to best get in the game and something that should probably have happened even if it was 1-1 with 20 minutes to go. It was also time for Davies ahead of Treacle. While Treacle was the correct decision before match and while we do not know how the relatively in-experienced wing back would have coped if he had started – at a goal down with 22 minutes to play – his better attacking play was a must. Unfortunately things did not happen as quickly as this and it took another 11 minutes for Davies to appear for Treacle while the guardian angel that protects over Sheringham’s place on the pitch ensured he had another 90 minutes with Poyet making way for Iversen but only with 7 minutes to go.

While I have made the case that Sheringham should have been removed for his previous contribution – he did actually have his best moments in the final 20 minutes when we had enough chances not just to level but go on and win the match.

Firstly Sheringham was released down the inside left channel and advanced with the ball into the left hand side of the penalty area. With Les screaming for a deep cross unmarked at the far post, for once, Ted decided to go for goal had hit and excellent chipped shot which Friedel tipped away at full stretch. Again on the left hand side, Ziege came bombing in to hit a first time volley from a deep cross, which he slightly miss hit and the ball went wide. It was a good effort but a pity that he did not try and control it and take it on.

Blackburn had a couple of chances at the other end as we pushed on, notably Yordi heading over from a good chance, but we had two chances in the last two minutes to have wrapped up the game or at least got the little something that we deserved.

A goal mouth scramble after good work by Ledley saw Ted seize upon a loose ball as a grounded Spurs player and a Blackburn player tangled for the ball. As he latched on to it, he went over and the everyone screamed for a penalty – but Poll, as Durkin before him in 1999 just waved play on much to the consternation of all the Spurs players notably Sherwood who stood pogoing up and down in front of Poll. At the time, I have to say that the way Sheringham went over it did appear to look like a dive – and I don’t think any contact he got from the defenders leg would have made him fall over like that, but the fact remains that the bloke stuck his leg out and impeded Sheringham to some extent. Penalty.

And after seeing a replay once and a still of the incident – I think Poll has got it all wrong, although I have to add that Sheringham’s over elaboration did not help matters (and why did he not stumble on and try and finish it there and then!) but our bastard luck with referees continues!

 

And even after all this heart break – we still had one more golden chance to have saved the match in injury time.

 

Sheringham sent over a deep cross for Iversen, who sent back across the perfect header for Les. There he was unmarked 6 yards out, a perfect cushioned header coming towards him, the massive goal just to his right with only one massive bald headed keeper to beat – all he had to do was nod it between the posts and anywhere away from Friedel's body.

Not something you would expect him to fluff, but again all he could offer was a tame header close to Friedel who scrambled it away. And that was that L - the cup was on its way back to Lancashire and they had won their first major final since 1928! 

The final whistle brought numbness – I still could n’t quite believe that we had managed to lose. Many Spurs fans understandably left, but Mary and I stayed for the presentations. The Spurs players slumped on the turf – King in a bad way and Ziege with his shirt in his face looked the most distraught. The organisation was swift and efficient and after greeting Poll going up to collect his award with a long stream of expletives, I along with several thousand Spurs fans applauded every one of the Spurs player up to the rostrum. Blackburn led by the Sourness went up for the cup and the trophy presentation was all done very well with fireworks and some tacky anthem or other being played.

I was a bit pissed off that all the fans that waited behind got was a half a second clap from the players from the halfway line before the went off the pitch. We all deserved a bit more respect that this – I appreciate that the players were pissed off – but so were we and many had given up the chance to beat what was to become impossible traffic home to stay behind to see the players off.

Post match a few people met up back in the walkabout and it was a numb feeling of disappointment. I had another night in Cardiff and slowly drown my sorrows in a out of centre pub while horror stories of journeys home unfolded for those who went back on the night – none more so that the Spurs coaches who again took the piss out of the fans and compounded the misery by poor organisation and “poor customer relations” by the drivers. This was perhaps the least of the surprises on the day!.

Down but it is not the end of the world. A final is still a final and it was a memorable occasion. This was just a blip at the beginning of the good times for Spurs under Hoddle – a major final in his first season and the return of better football during the season with the promise (whether ENIC come up with this is another matter) of more and better players on the way in the near future and I’ll leave it to Lynford to re-work an old 1982 classic when we also lost the League cup before going on to win the FA Cup:

1982:

Sing Sing where ever you may be

We lost the Milk Cup at Wem-ber-ley

But we’ll be back to win the other three

and we’ll go down in history

 

2002:

Sing sing until your jaw goes stiff,

We lost the Worthy cup in Cardiff,

But we'll be back to win the other one,

Back to Cardiff to beat the Scum.

The Word of Hod

Glenn Hoddle "We were very disappointed. In cup finals, if you create chance you've got to put them away, and in the end we haven't. The keeper's won man of the match, he's had a great game for them. The massive key for us is that, in my opinion, it was a nailed-on penalty that we didn't get on the day. Blackburn played well, they gave it everything. We played well at stages of the game but not at our very best. The bottom line is we've created more chances, better chances, and come off losers. That is bitterly disappointing."

"Players make mistakes, (Ledley) 's only made probably two or three mistakes this season. That is not in a game, in a season - he's been immaculate for us. I might add, he feels he could have done better, but look at the way he played afterwards. He didn't let that affect him and that shows the boy has got the right temperament. In the end he was as good as anyone in trying to retrieve the game."

"We're bitterly disappointed in there of course. There are a lot of players in there that have experienced losing in finals before, for some it is the first time. I've said to them that we've still got an opportunity to come back here again. Maybe by losing in this manner it drives us on and gives us an extra desire to come back again. We've got to look at something positive."

"We'll have to get this out of our system and that'll take a week and next week we turn our minds to the next game. At this moment in time I'm not enjoying the joys of life - but we'll live to work for another day, if you like. We could have averted it. The first goal maybe we couldn't, the ball was going for a goal-kick. The second we could have cleared quite easily.

"We had the opportunities to bury the game. Les' one on one, Gus has hit the bar. Les had two headers from five yards, the penalty decision went against us and I think that sums it up for us. We never got ahead of the game, we never got ourselves 1-0 up or 2-1 where maybe we could have flowed like we have this season. Credit to Blackburn, they played well and gave it their best."

Chris Hughton "Very, very disappointing. If I look how we've been playing in recent games, particularly the cup games, we probably didn't play as well as we would have like to have played, we didn't move the ball as well as we would have liked. Our passing game probably wasn't as good as it's been in other games, but it's a game and it's about chances. We certainly had three very good chances, and if I looked at their two goals they were two scrappy type goals from our point of view. That's what winning games is about, they took their opportunities and we didn't. Disappointment, but for us it's about bouncing back.

Teddy Sheringham "I can't believe the referee's not seen it. It was 100-per-cent a penalty, definitely, but he's not given it. What more can you say?"

"We have to move forward. I'm disappointed. To win a cup is a big thing at the start of the season and we've missed out on that. It was a chance to get into Europe as well, which would have been lovely, but it wasn't to be at the moment. I'm sure we'll have a couple of days when we'll keep going over and over it in our heads but we need to pick ourselves up. It's a big game against Sunderland on Saturday and we need to get back on the winning trail. But at the moment the disappointment is quite deep."

Christian Ziege "I think we created a lot of chances, sometimes we played our football and made chances, but we haven't been really clinical in front of the goal. I think this was the key thing from the game. We created chances, if we had scored before them, Les had a chance in front of the keeper, I missed a chance by a couple of inches. If one of these had gone in I feel the game would have been completely different. Even after the we went 2-1 down we had chances to equalise again, but unfortunately we didn't."

"It's always a special thing to score in a final, but there are two sides of the medal. It is special to play a final and win a final - the best feeling you can have as a footballer. The worst feeling you can have is losing a final and that's what happened today. I think the players will be thinking about it today and tomorrow. Then we have to stop it and concentrate on what is in front of us. We have still the league to play, about 12 games I think, and we are still in the quarter-final of the FA Cup - so it could be a case of coming back to Cardiff again.

Les Ferdinand  "It wasn't meant to be. The first one I was stretching a little but still got a good head on it and even though he saved it, I thought he might palm it into the net. The second one, headed it down and thought it was in but it hit his legs and came out. It wasn't to be. It's one of those things as a striker. I'll keep getting myself in that positions and, okay, I'm disappointed, all my family were at the final but it wasn't my day. It wasn't meant to be for me. It's one of those things but you have to go on. It's how it goes. People have mentioned Bolton and the hat-trick and I could have had another hat-trick, it just wasn't to be. I can't keep thinking about it, going over it - tomorrow's another day."

Brad Friedel "I kinda felt when Poyet hit the post it was going to be our game. Les has been an outstanding player over the years and he will be for however many more years he plays. I think he was a big threat to us and he is against any team that he plays against and that's a tribute to him. I think he was in behind for the first chance, I just stood my ground. I think it helped that he tried to take it round me, it gives you more of a chance. Things like that happen, five he would score, five I would save. A wrong touch would have been a penalty, without a doubt, and I think I am at a disadvantage with that so you have to do what you feel is best. I felt we were fortunate today at the critical times. Spurs are never easy to play against and all you can say is today we were fortunate to come out on top

Sullivan (6/10) – Had a decent match without being outstanding. Did some good saves but while the keeper at the other end scooped the man of the match award, Sully 2001 might have done a bit better with the first shot and would probably have saved the winner. This may be harsh as I have not had a chance to watch replays but it was my immediate reaction

Perry (6/10) – A solid match for Mr Ed who did everything that was required of him defensively

King (6/10) – A fine match, punctuated by one crucial error which has led to Blackburn scoring the winner. This will always be with him, but hopefully he will put it behind him and use it as a spur to take him on to greater things

Thatcher (6/10) – Had a good match (possibly his best for the club) and played well above expectations, inc a great saving tackle in the first half

Ziege (7/10) – While Friedel deservedly scooped the man of the match award, Ziege was probably our best player. A well taken goal and always looking dangerous on the left, and while it is fair to say he did not play defensively minded, he did his bit

Taricco (5/10) – An ordinary match where he could not dominate his winger and consequently Spurs attacked lopsidedly, with nothing much coming down the right. Treacle has had a good season but in the final he was not effective and in hindsight it may have been worth gambling with the extra buzz of Davies in this position

Sherwood (6/10) – Did ok, but did not really get hold of the match like he did in the Semi’s and allowed Blackburn to bully control of the midfield

Anderton (5/10) – I’m not sure how fit Anderton was for this match, but he was ineffective – giving the ball away and not creating much.

Poyet (5/10) – As ever had his moments – notably when hitting the woodwork and setting up Sir Les – but he did not get into the game enough and only lasts 90 minutes by coasting too often when we do not have the ball

Sheringham (5/10) – A major disappointment on the big day and a major surprise that he did not get it right on the day. Poor in passing and integrating the rest of the team & when Ted is off, the Bagpuss effect on the rest of the team is noticeable and the rest of the team could not rescue his off day

Ferdinand (5/10) – Had a good match in all but three crucial incidents – two simplish headers in either half and a one on one with the keeper. While I like Les and hate to critisize him after having his best season for us and doing so much to get us to the final but his misses were crucial in determining who won the match. It did not matter that we did not play as fluently as we can if he’d have scored two or even one of these chances it would have been a different outcome. He missed them all and they won!

Subs:

Davies (6/10) – Looked a breath of fresh air when he came on & the decision to play Treacle in front of him was probably incorrect in hindsight (but one that I agreed with before the match). Must be given a starting position from now on at the expense of either Treacle or Poyet and sure to feature in more Finals for Spurs

Iversen (6/10) – Had a lively match when he came on and nearly set Sir Les up for the winner. Just a pity he did not get on earlier.

The Tottenham supporters five-a-side gave Spurs fans some early cheer as they recorded a 2-1 win over Stockport in the Worthington Fives final. Kobinna Wireko, Yiadom Yeboah, Nas Ricardson, Faisal Kasimu, and Mark Gruber beat their Stockport counterparts ahead of yesterday's Worthington Cup final. Well done lads

TOPSPURS Editorial

25th February 2002 – Glenn Hoddle 23rd Jan 2002. “It's a great achievement tonight because of Chelsea and the record, but it's no good getting to the final unless we go on and win it."

 

And that says it all really. Soaking wet from 2 days of non-stop rain and pissed off! We really blew it!

 

Everyone is absolutely gutted about not just the defeat but also the manner of defeat. We did not win because it appeared that Blackburn were hungrier to win. Sure many things did not go Spurs way – Ferdinand had a mare in front of goal, an uncharacteristic error from Ledders and Graham Poll joins Durkin in the Referee hall of Shame for missing that foul on Sheringham – but in all honesty, too many of our star players had shit games. The game was very much like the away game at Charlton where although we had plenty of chances, we played shite against an inferior team on paper.

 

Before I go on about us – a quick word of congratulations to Blackburn. On the back of shite run in the league which has left them 4 points adrift of safety, having Tugay, Short, Flitcroft and Neill all out of the final and even being written off by their own fans, they produced a fairytale win (in similar circumstances to Coventry in 1987) against all the odds with a tremendous performance and I don’t think any Spurs fans begrudge them their win on the day.

 

Our problem was not that Blackburn won it, it was that we lost it & our problem was one of motivation and application – Thatcher (who played well) for Gardner this was the same team that demolished Chelsea - no one was saying Sheringham was too old when he belted the third in against Chelsea, Poyet has popped up with 10 goals from 29 starts, Ferdinand was the competition’s leading scorer before the match! And if you are blaming motivation and application – it is ultimately the fault of the manager and senior players for not making sure.

 

Regular watchers of Spurs know that Sheringham has not recovered his early season form since the start of December, and his down turn in form has co-incided with our bad run. When Ted clicks, they all click, esp. Anderton – but when he is off (and he had one of his least effective matches ever) the whole pattern of play is knackered. Even though he had looked poor in a number of games leading up to the final, with his big match pedigree for England and that other club up North, I thought he would come good again in the final – but he did n’t. While much of the blame for the defeat must rest with Sheringham, we should not forget that he has done a lot for Spurs since coming back and should not be written off as a result of one match. While everyone cited Sheringham as a main under performer, it was pick another or all from 4 more – Anderton, Poyet, Taricco and of course Ferdinand.

 

Anderton playing well is very much linked with Sheringham and he could not lift the rest of the team when it was obvious Ted was struggling and put in a poor display. Poyet had his usual game of nothingness punctuated with goalscoring moments – but this time, as it was against Bolton Wanderers, it was a hit the post moment when he really should have scored.

 

Ziege had a good match on the left but we were very lopsided, as Treacle could offer no outlet going forward on the right. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we really should have started with Davies out there and from this day on Davies should be in the team with either Treacle or Poyet making way.

 

And then there is poor old Sir Les. If Poyet hitting the post was a carbon copy of the Bolton Wanderers miss a week ago, then Les being put through one on one was a carbon copy of the first semi at Stamford Bridge. Again he chose to try and go round the keeper, only to be foiled and along with a couple of headers that he should have scored with in either half his ability not to score at least one of the three chances has cost us.

 

The rest of the team did ok, without any special performances. Thatcher had his best game for Spurs and along with Perry and Ledders was pretty solid at the back. Although King not lumping the ball out Perry style has cost us their winning goal, he was excellent other than that and you cannot expect to win matches only taking one of ten chances at the other end, and while Ledley must shoulder some of the blame, it is more important that he learns from the mistake and becomes a better player rather than worrying about it.

 

Where do we go from here? Short term, it is going to be a shite week for us lot as we return to workplaces, pubs and schools to the abuse from fans of other teams but we still have a lot to look forward to and after a day of moaning and feeling bad. We are still in the FA Cup and are 8th in the League. We need to take all the positives from this defeat, namely that we are not good enough just to turn up and win (well not unless we are playing Bolton in the Cup at home) – and every match needs 100% effort, 100% of the time from 100% of the players – we cannot afford any passengers.

 

One thing we have all noticed is that Sheringham is never subbed, and Poyet is rarely subbed. This seriously needs to be reviewed, as we cannot afford to have a player on the pitch that is not playing to their full potential. Sheringham has not played a full season since the 1995/96 season as a result of his injury in his last season for us and being used in the squad rotation at Man U. If he is not performing, Hoddle must be take the option to replace him – or Poyet for that matter to try and change things. The blind spots on certain players while commendable in terms of loyalty does sometimes look to be done at the detriment of the rest of the team.

 

Losing the League cup before going on to win the FA Cup happened 20 years ago and there is no reason why with a massive kick up the arse and a good draw in the Semi’s we cannot go on and do it again. An even if we do not win the cup this time, as long as we get the winner of the Arsenal/Newcastle tie in the final, we will be into Europe which was the long term aim this season. Losing the final is a massive blow to the long term plans for the club, as European football and the restoring the profile of Spurs was the aim of this season – and everyone involved in the running of the team need to redouble their efforts and not let this happen again.

 

We do not need to do anything daft cos we have lost one match – Hoddle is very much the man and we will get it right in the long term. The rest of the season and the summer were always going to be a crucial time for the club – we need to invest in top quality players, no excuses this time – but the time to judge the development of Spurs will be Dec 2002 when ENIC have had 18 months in control and Hoddle hopefully has had enough time to be in an advanced stage of re-working the squad into Hoddle’s Tottenham.

 

One thing that did piss me off was that none of the players came over to the Spurs fans that’d remained behind to watch the presentation. A token bit of applause from the halfway line is not appropriate after going on about how great the support was against Chelsea etc. No matter where or when we are playing in the country, knowing that there will always be a hardcore of passionate and committed fans to welcome them should count for something. Yeah I know the players were disappointed, but so were we & this lack of respect appeared to piss a number of people off as we left the stadium…before they really got into Sheringham, Ferdinand’s misses etc…

In terms of a weekend it was a memorable occasion – getting to meet so many new TOPSPURS faces in the Walkabout pub both before and after the match was fantastic, and what with the biblical flood weather and cup final experience – it was everything apart from winning the bloody cup!

26th February 2002 – Daily Round up

 

Life goes on – On the evening of the game – I was more in shock than anything else that we managed to blow it but since Monday the sheer enormity of what we have let slip has really dawned on me. It was certainly not in the ENIC plan of getting Spurs back where we belong at the top & it seems such a shame that after doing Chelsea, we let ourselves down against Blackburn. Still after a bit of moaning and having to endure piss takes from other supporters we need to get everything back on track for 3 points against Sunderland.

 

The defeat has revealed some of the weaknesses within the team that we need to address as soon as we can:

 

For many games this season Sheringham has been excellent and when he is on form there is virtually nothing that can stop us going forward. Unfortunately, he has not been at his best in the last couple of months – some of his touches are not coming off and the extra pass when sometimes a more direct approach would be more appropriate has led to frustration. Idiot calls for Ted to be dropped should be ignored and the people that are calling for this are missing the contribution to the team that has meant that the Leicester win was the only League win without him in the team. What we need is for him to get his touch back on a regular basis from a position within the starting line up, BUT to be removed for either Iversen or Rebrov (Ferguson, Barnard or Slabber) if he is not firing during the match. Keeping him on the pitch when he is not playing well has a negative effect upon the team and this seriously needs to be addressed by the great man at the helm.

 

There is nothing you can do about individual errors –Ledley will perhaps never make and error judgement like that again, and while Les does have a propensity to miss more chances than he should, he has been banging the goals in on a regular basis this season so you cannot really complain (although the next time he is through on a goal keeper – f**king shoot, chip him or whatever – don’t try and go round him!).

 

I admit that before the final I would have put Taricco in at right wing back, but his performance was the final straw for me in terms of Davies – who I do not think we can keep out of the first team and Davies should be given an extended run in the team at right wing back until Carr is fit again and then switched to attacking midfield with Poyet’s old legs dropping to the bench. Poyet has done well at Spurs 10 goals in 29 starting appearances is better most of our strikers since the days of Jurgen and Teddy in the mid 1990’s but his overall contribution when not popping up with the goals is not enough if we want to progress up the league, and it is not as if Davies is short of goals himself and he does more for the team (and is the future). Poyet from the bench will still be a powerful asset, but again he seems to benefit from special treatment in terms of his first team place and think that the wish for Davies to get in the team will remain only a wish for the rest of this season at least.

 

A special mention for the unsung – Perry who had another decent match at the back coping with most things Blackburn threw at us and much to my surprise and delight, Thatcher had his best match for the club in the final. While I do not anticipate either of these to be in the 2003 championship winning side both have proved that we have decent cover at the back for the three centre back positions of King, Doherty/(Richards) & Gardner.

 

Sully’s form remains a worry – he did some good saves in the match and while a shot at the goalkeepers legs are difficult to stop I was disappointed both that a shot straight at the keeper and a gentle lob to the corner which he managed to get his hand on, both went in. What makes it harder to live with is that he was so good last season – extra-ordinary saves in virtually every match since the Gooner home game at the end of 2000 to the end of the season.

 

Ziege joins the likes of John Cameron, Tom Smith and Sandy Brown – Jinking Jimmy Dimmock, Bobby Smith, Terry Dyson, Danny Blanchflower, Jimmy Greaves, Jimmy Robertson, Frank Saul, Martin Chivers, Ralph Coates, Tommy Hutchinson, Ricky Villa, Garth Crooks, Steve Archibald, Glenn Hoddle, Clive Allen, Gary Mabbutt, Paul Stewart, Des Walker and Allan Nielsen – in scoring in a domestic Cup final for Spurs. Ziege is a fine player in the true Tottenham tradition of flair and skill and it is great to have him at Spurs.

 

It is galling to think that despite playing below our best we played better than we did in 1999 for that lucky Gooner bastard and yet we come off losers this time. Still I would not change a thing in terms of who we have at the club and this will be the first of many big days at Spurs in the new Hoddle era.

Reception on Saturday – another ‘Danny Thomas’ for Ledley – It is vitally important that we give all the players a great reception on the Sunderland match to show we still have faith in them and in what is trying to be achieved at the Lane. Special applause should be given to Ledley King who must be feeling bad after the mistake which led to the winning goal and we should raise the roof when his name is announced and get a good bit of the Ledley King song going early in the match to let him know he is still a hero in the same way that Danny Thomas was embraced by the crowd after the penalty miss in 1984. Together we are strong and we are only at the beginning of the Hoddle era.

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