A TEN(S) TIME

With the true meaning of Christmas being to fill your boots with as much food and booze as you can and then to fill your bags with as many bargains in the sales that you can, it was quite a relief to get away from all this excess by attending Spurs v Reading at White Hart Lane.

There was nothing in the early moments to suggest that the glut of goals that would see the watching fans engorged with more than their fair share.

A sixth minute opener from Berbatov might have hinted that Spurs would find this match as easy as the previous home game on Boxing Day against Fulham, but a defensive mix-up at a Reading free-kick left Cisse the easy task of turning home a volley from the edge of the area and then after the break, the Royals showed some class with a goal from a corner when Ingimarsson was left unmarked.

Tottenham had to rely on Berbatov's second goal, where he latched onto Murty's poor clearance to lash home, before Kitson capitalised on Tottenham's weakness at defending set-pieces with another goal from another corner on the same side.

With Juande Ramos making a substitution to go with three at the back, the team were momentarily lost positionally.  It gave Reading the opportunity to wrap the game up, but Paul Robinson denied Kitson and Hunt, before Dimitar Berbatov showed his class, with a volley which was like Cisse's but closer in and with a bit more poise, to make it 3-3.

Come on !! Keep up !!

Still both sides played in one direction ... forward.  It was like watching the film "Speed" set in a football context.

As the visitors took the lead for a third time, courtesy of a neat Kitson finish after he was put through by Hunt, it looked like that would be that.  Much had been made of Kitson's support for Tottenham and I find it weird that someone who is a Spurs fan can score against them, but I suppose he must be the ultimate professional.  That was why he was straight over to Chimbonda when the game finished to get his shirt.

Anyway, it looked as though the game would fizzle out in the last quarter of an hour ...if you had been having too much Sherry.

When Huddlestone played a great disguised pass through to Malbranque, the midfielder cut inside and curled a right foot shot past Hahnemann to make it 4-4.

We awaited Reading's response, but rather than re-take the lead, the Biscuitmen crumbled and Spurs took advantage of their better attacking options to ram home the momentum they had built up.

Credit must be given to Ramos for continuing to go for the win, as Keane was felled by Sonko and got up to hit the penalty to Hahnemann's right and the keeper guessed right to save.  Luckily for Spurs, the ball popped up and Defoe dived in to head into the net to give Tottenham the lead.  Even more luckily, the officials hadn't noticed that he was not so much the fox in the box, than the jack in the box, being a little distance behind Keane as he ran in to take the kick.

With the game now swinging Tottenham's way, it was perhaps fitting that the man of the moment, Berbatov, should round things off as he ran onto Kaboul's long ball and thrashed the ball past Hahnemann.  No wonder his name is being linked with all and sundry in the papers.

This Tottenham side can play.  When they are all fit, wanting the ball and finishing well, they can be a match for anyone.  All they have to do is believe.

The only thing they have to do is to make sure they haven't over-indulged in the goal-scoring before they got to 2008 !!

Wyart Lane
My Eyes Have Seen The Glory
www.mehstg.com