Up Dawson's Creek

With another match at Old Trafford with no more luck than a ball three yards over the goal-line not being given as a goal, Spurs assisted United to their win with some errors and while not quite the architects of their own demise, they were certainly site managers.

But what Juande Ramos is trying to do at Tottenham is to build something with the assortment of raw materials he has inherited.  Some new purchases will help him construct the squad he wants, but he has found that the foundations are already in place, with just a few bits of structural strengthening needed in certain places.

You can see that the fans will offer support for the way he intends to play.  Going after United and causing them some nervy moments, there is a constructive process in the way he wants the side to build up their play from the back to the front. 

When Michael Dawson pinged a forty yard pass into Aaron Lennon's path (something the little man might not be used to), he played a ball along the corridor of uncertainty past van der Sar and to Robbie Keane, who got an extension of his leg to reach the cross and convert it to give Tottenham the lead.

They were playing open football and it was an end-to-end Cup tie, with Manchester United taking advantage of a mis-placed header from Dawson that dropped for Giggs to shield it leaving Tevez to bury the shot past Cerny to make it 1-1.  It undermined SPurs for a while, but they did not have to get out of the trenches to battle for the lead again, as they continued to play their own way and take the game to United.

But even then, Jenas had two chances to seal the victory either side of the break, but failed to cement the score-line in Tottenham's favour.

Any plans he might have had for the game were then thrown into disarray when United went route one and Dawson's mis-timed leap for the ball let in Rooney ... or would have had the Spurs man not thrown an arm at the ball to knock it away.

A penalty and a red card sealed the defeat.

But even then, it was a piece of woodwork that deprived Tottenham from getting back into the match.  Wes Brown dug his side out of a hole with a foot in on Steed Malbranque's cross to deny Dimitar Berbatov getting onto the end of it, but he hammered it against his own post and the home side escaped.

Within minutes, the stretched Tottenham side were exposed when Ronaldo switched sides to escape the attention of Jamie O'Hara, who had the wonder winger safely secured, as he dug in against his tricks and flicks.  On the other flank, Ron tried his luck and a fortunate flick off Malbranque's leg took the ball under Cerny's body for a goal that made the scoreline look unbalanced, as Spurs had not subsided after being reduced to ten men.

A shame we couldn't have progressed in the competition, as we would have had an easy tie in the Fifth Round with Man U getting a home game against Arsenal.

But the next Saturday game sees us pitched in against the Red Devils again, but this time for league points. 

Loathe as we are to stop their charge to the league title, it is our own team-building and progress that means we need to shin up the scaffold of the Premier League to try to reach the loft, if not the roof.

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