Down The Dip

A visit to Derby County is not one of the trips that always fills Spurs with glee, as they are the sort of team that invariably rob points off us when we feel (in that oh, so superior way that other fans think Spurs fans are thought to live their lives) we ought to pick up without turning up.

But the second away win of the season came with a patience and belief that they would come if we kept playing our football.  It is not always the way in English football that the big fish always beat the little fish, with shocks thrown up in Cup and League, but Derby are struggling to beat Sunderland’s all-time low points total in the Premier League, thus re-strengthening the gap between the top flight and the division below.

The Rams bought players they thought would keep them in the Premiership, but coming after their Play-off final win, they were always playing catch-up, even with the teams they came up with.  A big money-spinning win thanks to Stephen Pearson’s goal now seems to have become a bit of a nightmare, with moans from fans at opposition players and from the manager at a lack of respect shown for referees, as the Spurs Club Secretary handed in the team sheet.

Having held out for an hour of the game, Paul Jewell should be accentuating the positive and looking as to why the team suddenly looked a shadow of themselves after Tottenham had brought on Dimitar Berbatov.  It wasn’t only the Bulgarian’s contribution that helped Spurs win the match.  Jamie O’Hara came off the bench at the break to replace the ineffective Kevin-Prince Boateng and added a different dimension to the side.  His quick and accurate passing upped the tempo a bit and left Derby chasing the blue-shirted Spurs players.  They weren’t quite chasing the game at this stage and should have been ahead after crafting the best chance of the first half, when Pearson put the boy prodigy Giles Barnes through.  His attempted finish with the outside of his right boot was the wrong execution, as he sent the ball wide of Radek Cerny’s far post.

As it was, Roy Carroll made some good saves to keep Tottenham out and he even managed to stop Steed Malbranque’s drive, but Robbie Keane was in the right place on the right side of the last defender to knock home the loose ball inside the six yard box.  Home fans jeered the decision to allow the goal, with Malbranque being allowed to play on, when the ball by-passed Berbatov coming back from an offside position.

The whole offside thing is getting a bit out of hand.  Let’s either go back to the way it was when everyone understood it or go back to 1970 and adopt the experiment tried out in the Watney Cup, where you couldn’t be offside between the two 18 yard lines.  It allowed goal-hangers to score, but now the rules allow people to goal-hang, as long as they don’t score.  Where is the added value to the game in that ??

Anyway, 1-0 it was and there was little going back after that.

Substitute Younes Kaboul got in on the act, when Carroll saved and conceded a corner, that was cushioned into the central defender’s path by Pascal Chimbonda’s header and Kaboul had time to take a touch and then fire in past the keeper.

When a third came in injury time, it was taken as an insult by Alan Stubbs, who stuck out an arm to stop a cross and conceded a penalty.  When the new penalty taker, Berbatov, stepped up to take the spot-kick, he coolly waited until Carroll had committed himself and stroked the ball into the area where the keeper wasn’t.

3-0 might have flattered Tottenham, but the way they went about their work was impressive and the psychology that Ramos is instilling in the players to keep playing the same way, whether winning or losing, is finally starting to pay off. 

With no disrespect to Derby County, there are bigger games ahead for Spurs, but this game and the final outcome may prove just as important in their development as a team who might challenge for silverware.

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