SATURDAY 23RD
SEPTEMBER, 2000 FA CARLING
PREMIERSHIP
Referee:- S.
Bennett
Attendance:-
36,069
Spurs (4-3-3):-
Sullivan; Carr, Vega, Perry, Thatcher (sub Young, 86); Freund,
Sherwood (Capt.), Leonhardsen; Rebrov, Ferdinand (sub Doherty, 81),Iversen
Subs not
used:- Walker; Clemence, Davies
No Bookings
Man City (3-5-2/
reverting to 4-4-2):- Weaver; Prior, Howey (sub Crooks, 19),
Ritchie; Haaland (Capt.), Whitley, Wiekens, Horlock, Tiatto
(sub Kennedy, 48); Dickov (sub Weah, 61), Wanchope
Subs not
used:- Wright (GK); Bishop
Booked:- Horlock, Crooks
Once again, Spurs fans went home
frustrated as their team failed to score for the third
consecutive game. In fact, the last goal was that scored against
West Ham by Sol Campbell, despite the presence of three strikers
in the last 3 league games. A defender came nearest to scoring
for Spurs today as Ramon Vega cracked a header against the bar.
Rarely have we seen the short passing game that George Graham
seemed to be looking for in the now distant pre-season. Spurs
have sorely missed Darren Anderton, as the only midfield creator,
captain for the day, Tim Sherwood, is off his game at the moment,
and not often finding his target with his passes.
Much of the game seems to be by-passing
Sergei Rebrov, as too often, Spurs relied upon long balls or
percentage passes. Man City packed their defence, and had to play
the closing stages with only ten men as substitute Lee Crooks was
stretchered off with 25 minutes left. The angry Joe Royle had
already used his three subs, and could be seen complaining to the
fourth official that the challenge upon Crooks (possibly by
Thatcher) went unpunished. Whilst Weaver had a couple of good
saves to make, Weah and Wanchope firmly tested Sullivan in that
last half hour, as a shock defeat looked all too possible.
Man City were on the back foot from the
outset as Ferdinand’s sharp-angled shot was saved, and then
Iversen’s header from a right field cross was cleared off
the line. Stephen Carr, of all people, had 2 shaky moments as he
under-hit one and over-hit another back pass. After the first
mistake, Tiatto turned Carr and then shot into the side netting.
Neil Sullivan had to improvise to prevent the second going into
the net, as he managed to think quickly and head clear. George
Graham later suggested that Weaver was the man of the match, but
he had no trouble when Ferdinand headed a Perry cross into the
goalie’s hands. Really, that was the story of the game, as
chance after chance went begging, and we didn’t make Weaver
work enough. Unfortunately, some of the best chances fell to
Leonhardsen, whose first touch was pretty awful, and whose shots
were too weak, or miss-hit.
For me, Ramon Vega was the Spurs man of
the match. He defended confidently, and quite often was our last
line. He distributed well, finding colleagues with headed or
passed clearances over 90% of the time. Vega was also a potent
attacking force, often carrying the ball out of defence to start
an effective attack, and coming close to scoring more than once.
I hope he scores on Tuesday against Brentford and answers Ron
Noades goad in the best possible manner. (Noades had been quoted
this week as saying that “When you see Vega coming on, you
always feel you have a chance”) There were several chances
for Iversen, Freund and Rebrov in the first half, but it was
Wanchope who broke round Perry (only half heartedly going for a
City free kick) and forced a diving save from Sullivan. City
reverted to 4-4-2 in the second half, and early on, Thatcher did
well to battle away against Crooks, and get a cross in which
Ramon headed against the bar.
The gangling Wanchope threatened again,
and was obstructed on the edge of the area. Horlock blasted the
free kick wide. Once again, Carr did not seem to be allowed
forward much, and when he did there was too little support. The
flanks have been empty spaces for too much of the time this
season. When we did use width, from either side, we were
dangerous, so why not attack more in this way? With 59 minutes
gone a good passing move culminated in a 30 yard cracker from
Iversen, which Weaver held. Rebrov had a goal disallowed for
offside (correctly), and with 20 minutes to go, Spurs were nearly
caught on the hop, as Weah led a City counter-attack, but
Wanchope’s shot across the goal went wide. Sullivan was soon
in action again, as Iversen lost out in midfield, and this time
Weah hit the target, but Sullivan was equal to the low drive in
the middle of goal.
Weaver’s best save was a dive to the
left to palm away a powerful Rebrov shot, but it wasn’t long
before Man City countered again. Iversen was on the floor in the
City area, Leo lost the ball, and Weah forced yet another decent
save from the Spurs keeper, who will be missing next week through
suspension. Doherty was an ineffective replacement for Ferdinand,
and Spurs last chance came after Rebrov was bundled down outside
the box by Ritchie. After the free kick, a Rebrov shot was
parried by Weaver, and Sherwood pounced to sweep up, but was
adjudged offside by a very late flag.
In his after match interview, Graham was
keen to make the point that if we had got the extra point that we
had deserved at Charlton, if we had won at Middlesbrough, and if
we had got the “rub of the green” today, then we would
be in the top three. There are a lot of ifs there. We still haven’t
played a top side, and the trip to Leeds next Saturday looks a
tough test even though they are in the middle of an injury crisis.
Spurs fall to sixth place today, and lost their 100% home record,
and also a 100% home record in the Premiership against City
But at the end of a largely forgettable
match Spurs were jeered off the pitch after surrendering this
season's 100% home record to a City side which battled with
admirable grit but still looked decidedly ordinary. The first
half, which had started so promisingly for Spurs, developed into
the kind of muddled mediocrity which makes nonsense of claims
that the Premiership is the best league in Europe.
Weaver made an outstanding block to defy
Les Ferdinand in only the second minute and when City could not
complete the clearance Steffen Iversen rose at the far post to
deliver a header which Alfie Haaland scraped off the line. Then
Ferdinand appeared to have a good case for a penalty when going
down from a nudge by Paul Ritchie but Bennett let it go. It
should have been the prelude to the kind of Tottenham aggression
which had brought them three previous consecutive home victories
this season, but somehow it all fizzled out.
Not until the closing moments of the
first period did they really threaten again when Ritchie and
substitute Lee Crooks had to perform last-ditch rescues to defy
Rebrov and Iversen. Gerard Wiekens, Danny Tiatto and Kevin
Horlock deserved credit for their battling in the midfield
trenches but there was little in the way of creativity or
invention to rouse a shirt-sleeved crowd basking in the
unexpected autumn sunshine.
It did not immediately stop City coming
under siege and Spurs thought they had taken the lead when Rebrov
nipped past a hesitant Haaland and slipped the ball past Weaver,
with Vega sliding in to make sure the ball crossed the line. But
the referee had spotted an infringement that few others had seen,
although in fairness there was little protest from Tottenham.
Haaland made up for his earlier slackness
when blocking Oyvind Leonhardsen's drive which looked likely to
make the breakthrough for Spurs three minutes later, and Iversen
miscued horribly after Ferdinand again troubled City in the air
to supply the chance. Rebrov worked like a beaver to lift the
largely unchannelled efforts going on around him and Weaver did
well to paw away his savage cross-shot after the little Ukrainian
cut in purposefully from the left.