TOPSPURS MATCH REPORT 

 

Saturday 30th November 2002, 3.00pm

FA Premiership, St Andrews

BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Kenna 67)

Vaesen, Kenna, Purse, Cisse, Devlin (Johnson, 63), Savage, Lazaridis (Kirovski, 89), Cunningham, John (Hughes, 83), Morrison, Tebily. Subs: Bennett, Hutchinson.

Keane (Iversen, 74)

Sheringham

Ziege

Anderton (Redknapp 79)

Freund

Poyet (Acimovic 84)

Carr

Bunjevcevic

Richards

King

Keller

Subs not used: Hirschfeld, Perry.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (Sheringham 55)

Referee: - E Wolstenholme

Attendance: - 29,505

Same old Same old. This time we got a point where we would usually have lost which is something I suppose, but this was a desperate excuse for a football match played by one very ordinary and one very poor sides. Another good away trip ruined by the football & dilution of the memory of our great club. Just where are we going? Slow passing, No movement, Old players going thro the motions and a manager who orchestrated another 90 minutes of rubbish taking off our best player and leaving others less worthy to have their full 90 minutes. I’m at a loss to try and look on the bright side. This game was the same as so many shit matches played by Spurs over the last few years and the most depressing thing is that I can’t see a way out of it at the moment.

The train up to Brum, like Spurs in many respects was fine near London but began to become irregular as we approached the second city which cut a silhouette of gloom, under grey leaden skies. The old bill were out in force around the station with the prospect of a major kick off between the rival firms.

The only inspired part of the day was Nutty Naylor’s choice of pre-match boozer, the Turks Head in Aston which was empty save for a good collection of topspurs – Haverhill’s Lynford, Scooby and Garry, Rabbi Crackers and mate, David Etere, Bazzer, Mick, Noodles, Shaz, Rosie & Treacle. It has got that bad now that I can’t really have the necessary memory loss to be hopeful about seeing a good Spurs performance and win away from home, even against shit like Birmingham, but seeing the “Tottenham Boys, we are here” book was a good reminder of the old and better days. A reminder that we were up North came when a cab ride in a 7-seater mini bus halfway across the city came to only £7

In the stadium, it was good to see many of the old faces that you see at all the Spurs away matches, many of whom were conspicuous by their absence at Scumbury last time out. One sour note before the match was reading a Brummie fanzine I wasted a quid on, which for some reason was called Zulu. It contain pages of anti Semitic crap masquerading as humour and the Birmingham City club should do something about this sort of thing.

Unusually, I was in me seat well before kick off but even the late bout of optimism failed to arrive and its sad to say that my expectations are so low that not being beaten was about the best I could hope for. That’s one of the worst things – Spurs are so predictable. At home we lose or are at least outplayed by the good teams in the League, against pretty much anyone else in the league, we do ok at home. Away we lose, usually without scoring against the top sides. Against the rest of the league we lose to anyone who really fancies it and puts in some effort and are lucky if we score once. It never used to be like this, I’m sure of it. We are not bad, but equally we are not good, and most worryingly we don’t seem to be going anywhere – on a midtable treadmill of false dawns and shattered dreams.

The game kicked off with the Brummies attacking the stand in which the faithful Spurs support was gathered, and rain poured continuously from the dark skies. As with the last few matches, the Spurs support started out as vocal as ever, but gradually declined throughout the match, numbed by the performance or lack of it on the pitch.

The game was very poor. Even allowing for the wet conditions, the mindset of the tactics employed by Hoddle did not seem to be correct. Again! If we’d have played this match at THFC we would have attacked with more urgency – like we will next week but we don’t seem to do this away. I cannot fathom why – same green grass with white lines, and most importantly, the same 3 points.

So why do we have a record of P31  W7, D6, L18, F32 A53 PTS 27 (ppg 0.87) away from the Lane under Hoddle, while we have a respectable P30 W17, D6, L7 F48, A36 PTS 57 (ppg 1.90). I hate to say it, but it is not much better in terms of results than the evil Goonersaurus, and lets be honest not that much better in terms of style sometimes. Was the Derby away game of last season any better than the defeat in 666s last league game in charge? Of the team that started, 7 were signed by Hoddle (and along with King and Carr who would get in most premiership sides) that suggest that this is Hoddle’s team. The one he wanted with the modest funds available. So why are we still so ordinary? Sure he needs more than 18 months and he deserves the whole of his 5 years to get Spurs back – but when is the return to the top going to start? When will the gap on Arsenal narrow? When will we have a sign that things are starting to turn for Spurs?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still supporting Hoddle and am desperate for him to be a success at THFC as a manager as well as a player, but I need to see where we are going and it is proving very hard to work up any enthusiasm based on recent events (a win against a soppy Leeds team apart).

In terms of picking bright points from the game, Ledley again looked good at the back and along with the reliable Richards and Keller (& with Snoop Dogg to come back) we have the basis of a decent defence. All we need now is a midfield to protect it! and a forward line to score some goals.

We should be thankful that Spurs managed to get a point, and this was solely due to Birmingham being exceptionally poor. Lacking in quality all over the pitch, which could not be made up for by effort. They had failed to score in three of their previous four home matches and it was easy to see why. In saying that they created more than we did but never had anything serious to test Keller. The spirits of everyone was so dulled by the football, that not even the loathsome Savage got his usual level of abuse.

Half time was a relief, but the second half was no better. Ok so there was a couple of goals, and the Spurs goal was a well worked move that stood out as the best moment of the match by a mile, but it was still dire stuff to sit thro for £30. The goal came largely out of the blue. Carr did his man out on the right and got the ball to Sharon, who had his moment of the match to pick out Ziege’s good run beyond the full back with an excellent pass. Ziege hit a low cross shot to the far post and the keeper could only parry it out for the waiting Sheringham to tap home before celebrating in front of the Spurs fans behind the goal. It was literally the only memorable moment of the match.

The best way to defend a one goal lead is to score a second but the current philosophy amongst the coaching staff at THFC is that we can defend a one goal lead, even though the stats show that Spurs have the worst record of losing matches after taking the lead. In fact, the one good part of what was a terrible programme was a stat page. This showed that Spurs had not won any match from being a goal down (the last time we did this was Boro at home, Oct 01). It also showed that we have 99% average attendance compared to capacity. The spirit is there in the terraces, but not on the pitch.

Ziege had a Ziege match, not putting himself out too much but generally doing enough, and as ever having a good habit of getting into some good attacking positions. From one of these he forced a good save from their keeper and who knows, if that went it, we may be talking about an unconvincing but welcome three points rather than a dismal match and a point.

Then came the “Justin Edinburgh” moment – a goal from Jeff Kenna his first for 8 years. There did not seem to be much of a threat but Sharon could not get a tackle in on him (no excuses as Kenna does not train all week cos of his bad Achilles) and Fraud for a “hard man” put in a weak block when Kenna got to the edge of the box and had a shot. The goal was irritating but no more than they deserved and we should be thankful as more often than not an equaliser is followed by a winner.

Soon after their goal, the stadium erupted with a mass of noise which was genuinely one of the loudest I have heard I the premiership (along with Boro, who were not quite as loud but were active for much longer). They also had this stupid habit of going “whooooooooo” when a Spurs sub was announced followed by a chorus of “who are ya”. Very lower league.

Most of the Spurs fans were in disbelief when they realised that Hoddle chose to remove Keane for Iversen. This is absolutely mad and makes you wonder if Hoddle really has it to be a successful boss at THFC. I would be interested to hear his reason but even a blindfolded Keane would have been better than Sheringham, Poyet, Fraud, Sharon or even Iversen come to that in the last 15 of any match. Just cannot work out why he took off our most likely player?

Sharon was replaced by Redknapp and Acimovic come on for Poyet but nothing changed and it was a relief when we were finally put out of our misery with a point in tact. We all sloped off back to the boozer for the post mortem conducted in a Stella haze – trying to avoid mad Brummies who insist on naming the Spurs team in 1962.

For all those who do not see Spurs away, but have seen the 7 home matches that have produced 5 wins and a good draw against Chelsea, you must wonder just how could Spurs be so bad away. Hopefully the Sunderland match revealed just how bad we were – this was the same except the goals were shared between the sides.

A number of questions need to be asked of Hoddle. Does he have the tactical nous to be a success at the highest level with Spurs? I was sure he did when he joined by am having major doubts since around March last year. Do I want Hoddle out – most certainly NOT but I do want Hoddle to give us a sign that we are on the road back to the top. Our next signings whether they be Bosmans or multi million pounders have to be young quick talented and have an aggressive will to win. No more Balsawood Balkans or pretty fairies. I want Spurs to pound a team into submission with fast attacking football, not ponce them to boredom with slow square passes.

I know this cannot be turned around overnight, these things take time but just how long must Blondel rot in the reserves while the likes of Acimovic get on the bench and Fraud in the first team? I think the worst bit is that I am becoming kind of numb to it all. I don’t really expect Spurs to ever get any better and they never surprise me anymore. Still on the Che Guevara highway, waiting for the great leap forwards.

What do you want – new training ground, new stadium, or a champions league team? I know which one I want and it’s the only one of the three that we don’t have now.

 

The Word of Hod

Glenn Hoddle was disappointed we didn't go on to beat Birmingham City after going ahead in Saturday's draw at St Andrews. "I don't think either side deserved to win the game," said Glenn afterwards. "A draw was probably a fair result. Our disappointment was that we were 1-0 up and that was a key moment in the game where we should have tried to improve our performance. If we had I think we would have won the game. We didn't do that.

"Be fair to Birmingham, it's a hard place to come and the crowd was loudest when we were 1-0 up. That lifted them. We're disappointed that we didn't lift our game at 1-0 up and not playing particularly well. Conditions meant it was hard to get the ball down and play, it was like a bar of soap sometimes. That suited their game more than ours. But sometimes it might have to be an ugly performance that gets you a win and that's what we were looking for."

Keller (6/10) – Another solid match for the Muswell Hill boy, who looks well settled as Number 1 for Spurs

King (6/10) – Good match for the King, doing all what was asked of him

Richards (6/10) – Decent match again for Deano and looks to be forming a good partnership with the King. All they need now is a bit of protection from the midfield and we might start to get somewhere

Bunjevcevic (5/10) – Did ok but always looks vulnerable at the back when the pressure is on and is only keeping the seat warm for Gardner, assuming Hoddle’s sanity extends to picking Snoop when he is fit.

Carr (6/10) – I may have my problems with Carr’s attitude off the pitch, but he remains one of our best players on it. Just wish we had the players around him to bring him the success he craves. Was the only player to take out Savage and all credit to him for that.

Anderton (5/10) – Despite her renown passing ability, it was only the lack of pointing that distinguished this performance from one of Sherwood at his worst with hospital ball after hospital ball. I remember what a decent player he has been over his time at THFC but he is old and not very good these days. His “challenge” on Kenna for their goal was not acceptable for someone who takes home £35k a week. Players like him, Iversen, Fraud etc need to be replaced by better, much better players before we can think about moving on.

Freund (5/10) – Crap. Part of his ”genius” must have been the attempted block on Kenna’s shot for the goal. As Adam Ant would say “Can’t pass, can’t tackle, got no pace, what do you do?”

Poyet (5/10) – After a good showing last week, it was back to normal for Poyet – ineffective anonymity. Has he really got another 18 months on his deal! Faaaaaackin hell

Ziege (5/10) – Set up the goal in the one bright moment of the match (albeit with an ordinary cross/shot) and generally did ok in a modest sort of way in his second comeback game.

Sheringham (5/10) – Ted capped his 250th start for Spurs with his 117th goal but apart from being in the right place at the right time did little else. Along with Poyet and a few others, Ted looks good at WHL against crap, but when it comes to a battle or playing a good side away from home, these players are just not up to it anymore.

Keane (6/10) – Not as effective as last week and his performances seem to mirror the team’s overall performances, but that said he was our most lively attacking player and was mysteriously taken off by Hoddle in one of his more baffling moments which makes it impossible to defend the manager.

Subs: -

Iversen (5/10) – Useless

Acimovic (5/10) – Inept, bordering on the pathetic

Redknapp (6/10) – Why was he not starting? A scandalous decision that needs explaining

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