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Tottenham
Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion
White Hart Lane,
Tottenham. 8th December 2002, 4.05pm. |
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I'm still trying to
work out how we lost that game and it boils down to one thing, finishing.
In the first half, Albion played creative, attractive football and
dominated the game. Yet at half time, they were 2-0 down. In the
second half, they were not quite as dominant but still looked like
getting a point until that shambles at the back.
Living in Cheshunt, a mere fifteen minute train journey got me to
White Hart Lane for my 'local' game. Team news was worrying with
neither Moore nor Gilchrist making the otherwise unchanged starting
line-up. Wallwork took Big Dave's position in the back three.
It was only the third minute when Sheringham repeated his feat in
the England-Greece game last year and won a free kick that never
was. That one lead to England's qualification for the World Cup,
this one was not quite so important for the country as a whole,
but Siggy looked to play the ball. Even so, it was defendable. We
all knew Ziege would do nothing else but shoot and Clement's dancing
on the line was pathetic. He failed to line the wall up properly
and ZEIGE found the gap - I hope he took note.
So, on the back foot in North London again but this time we were
playing much better. With Koumas once again pulling the strings
and both wing backs getting forward, it was Albion that were completely
on top.
Koumas fed Hughes who crossed for AJ but his lunge for the ball
was short by an agonizing few inches. The best chance of the first
half fell to Clement. Good play from Roberts found Balis whose cross
fell for the former Chelsea man five yards out with an open goal.
Needless to say, he missed.
Spurs were all over the place as Koumas went on a fantastic run
through the heart of their midfield before feeding Hughes. But the
ball was slightly behind the Ginger Ninja and his shot was tame.
Minutes later, the Wirral Wonder had a shot himself from the edge
of the box but it was well saved by Keller.
Then, disaster. Albion lost the ball in midfield and Zeige played
an exquisite ball over the top of Wallwork and Gregan for Dingle
reject Robbie Keane to run onto. One-on-one with Hoult, Albion fans'
worst fears came true as KEANE neatly flicked the ball over the
onrushing 'keeper to make it 2-0. How on earth were Albion two down?
It seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Albion as their spirit
petered out in the minutes leading up to half time. Clement did
manage to fire a free-kick over the bar with Koumas repeating the
feat with a shot from 20 yards, but Spurs came closest to scoring
when Keane beat the offside trap (do we play one?) once more just
before the break, but this time Hoult was equal to it.
Spurs started the second half brightly with Gregan doing his party
trick of miscuing a Carr cross over his own bar and minutes later
blocking a shot from Keane. In all, the game was stalemated with
Hoddle making changes to stop Albion playing (who'd have thought
it?).
Hughes, who'd took a knock, was replaced by Dobie ten minutes after
the re-start, and the Scottish international looked extremely bright.
On 66 minutes, the small club voodoo struck again. Koumas fed Dobie
who was clear through on goal before he was crudely felled by Keller
outside the box. The ref and linesman discussed whether they liked
the Hawthorns enough to want to go next year and decided against
it, showing Keller just a yellow card. Keller was therefore in place
to make a great save from Koumas from the ensuing free kick.
A few minutes later, Albion got their reward when DOBIE beat another
Dingle-reject Richards, before firing an unstoppable shot into the
bottom left corner. It should have been level four minutes later
when Clement met a Koumas corner eight yards out but headed wide.
Albion were beginning to run out of ideas when Spurs got a third.
A long throw was met by Iversen whose shot was blocked. A shamoblic
scramble ensued before POYET stabbed a weak shot towards the corner,
and somehow it crept in.
If we play with the same quality and effort as at White Hart Lane,
we'll give ourselves an excellent chance of mid-table obscurity,
but unless we start putting the ball in the back of the net, we
may as well kiss goodbye to the Premiership.
RESULT - TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 WEST
BROMWICH ALBION 1
Marks
Hoult - 7 - Amazingly, had little to do.
Balis - 7 - Good attacking performance with some end product.
Clement - 4 - Missed the two best chances, some inept defending
along with the free kick incident and when going forward, he came
inside too often.
Gregan - 6 - Steady, but poor on two of the goals.
Wallwork - 6 - Looked good early on, caught out a couple of times.
Sigurdsson - 7 - Good solid performance.
Koumas - 8 - MOM. Another excellent performance.
Johnson - 7 - Busy and tough-tackling performance.
McInnes - 6 - Did OK.
Hughes - 7 - Played well, good movement, unlucky to get a knock.
Roberts - 6 - He's got the ability, but we need some end product.
Dobie - 7 - Excellent, great goal.
A Chambers - 5 - Made little impact.
Dichio - 4 - Made even less impact.
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Tottenham
Hotspur (3-5-2):
Keller; King (Iversen 65), Perry, Richards; Carr, Anderton, Redknapp,
Davies, Zeige; Sheringham (Poyet 74), Keane. Subs not used: Hirschfeld
(GK), Doherty, Ferdinand. |
West
Bromwich Albion (3-5-2):
Hoult; Sigurdsson, Wallwork, Gregan; Balis, McInnes, Koumas, Johnson
(A Chambers 85), Clement; Roberts (Dichio 81), Hughes (Dobie 55).
Subs not used: Murphy (GK), J Chambers.
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Scoring: Zeige (3)
1-0, Keane (30) 2-0, Dobie (73) 2-1, Poyet (80) 3-1.
Bookings: Tottenham Hotspur - Zeige (foul 31), Keller (foul 66).
West Bromwich Albion - Clement (foul 76).
Referee: A Wiley (Burntwood)
Attendance: 35,958 |
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