Drawing A Line Under The Season

Another 1-1 draw saw Spurs allow Bolton a vital point in their bid for Premier League survival and in the process take our unbeaten (and unwinning) run to four matches.  Hardly title winning form, but then that hasn't been on the agenda for a long time.

Not that the football was that bad, as the sun on our faces helped make the lack of three points easier to bear, as it signals a summer of haggling and money spent, of which some has been shelled out already.

Luka Modric watched the game from the Director's box and must have been bamboozled by what he saw.  A team who have won a trophy and are assured of a European place in the UEFA Cup, having great trouble putting away a side fifth bottom in the table. Admittedly, teams in similar positions in the Croatian league and other European leagues might just be cannon fodder, this one went as far as Spurs in the UEFA Cup this season and have finished above them for a number of seasons prior to the last two.

Tottenham should have left their penultimate home league match with all three points.  Bolton were set up to contain Tottenham and must have been as shocked as everyone else when they scored 25 seconds into the second half. Their goal followed something I have never seen in years of watching football at all levels. 

Alan Hutton had made a run down the wing after a through pass, but it went out and as he reached the touchline, he was giving a helping nudge by a Bolton player that took him over the advertising hoarding and straight into the disabled section.  Hutton managed to stop himself injuring any of those sitting in their wheelchairs, but in the process seem to twist his ankle.  That was in the 16th minute.  He battled on for the rest of the half, being a regular target for the fouls of the Bolton players; sharing that honour with Aaron Lennon.  However, at the start of the second half, he made the jog from the tunnel to the far side of the pitch to take up his position at right back.  He was making the distance gingerly, but when he got there, he turned around and jogged straight off !!  Obviously, this was the test of his injury that showed he couldn't give it the regulation "five minutes" of the second half to see how it went.  Spurs looked as though they would start the half with only ten men, but Tom Huddlestone came out of the tunnel and with Zokora moving to right back, the team took the kick off.

Dawson's ball from the kick-off was intercepted, moved up the right wing, where a low cross from Steinsson was blocked at the near post by Cerny as a Wanderers player came in and when it broke loose, Stelios hammered it into the net.  The players and the fans, who made a lot of noise for only 1,000, went wild.  Some of the Spurs fans did too.

It was a sleepy moment, which after a less than alluring first half, the fans might have been worthy of, with the sun shining down on the crowd.  Bringing Huddlestone on soon paid dividends, as he began doing what he does best; prompting play with short and long passes and despite Bolton's massed ranks of defence, space began to be found.  With Zokora having a storming game after his re-location, Bolton suffered against our right side, with Lennon and Zokora making inroads around the slow Matthew Taylor and the labouring Samuel.  A move that saw the ball moved about well ended with a quickening of the pace by Jermaine Jenas with a ball into Keane.  He turned on the edge of the box and had a shot that took a flick off the leg of a defender and as Cahill watched it go beyond him, Steed Malbranque ran in at the far post to slot it past Al Habsi for the equaliser.

This prefaced a period of play when it was all around the Bolton goal and although the stats show that Tottenham had something like 20 odd efforts on goal to seven by Bolton, few of these were on target, as I only remember Al Habsi having to make a couple of saves and Guthrie managing to knock Darren Bent's late header away from the goal-line at the far post.  Too often shots were fired off target, none more so than Jenas' first half free-kick which missed by a considerable distance.  He didn't have one of his best games, but he did keep making himself available for the ball and a few other players might take a leaf out his book in that respect.  JJ needs to sharpen up his game and start imposing himself on other teams to make an impact.  He is a very good player and needs to step up a gear at this stage of his career.

Unfortunately for Tottenham Dimitar Berbatov was having a game of flicks and tricks, which didn't come off.  He dropped deeper and deeper once Bent came on, but really should have done better with a free header from O'Hara's free-kick, but put it over and didn't even require the keeper to make a save.  He has scored well this season with 23, but you just yearn for a greater strike rate, as he could easily have doubled that.

The closest that Spurs had come in the first half was right at the end when one of a long series of fouls on Hutton gave Tottenham a free-kick on the right hand corner of the box.  For once, it was left to someone else other than Jenas and the natural left-footer Gilberto took it.  It didn't look the greatest free-kick, with the ball staying low, but it got through the wall and was threatening enough to make Steinsson kick the ball against his own goalpost with the goalkeeper stranded.

So yet another Tottenham shot hits the woodwork and according to stats (again) the team have hit it more than any other team in the Premier League.  It is a thin line, but shooting into the net might have given us enough points to have been satisfied with our league season instead of frustratingly lower than halfway.

Will it be Champions League we are talking about next year rather than middle of the table ??  A tough ask, but Modric might just be the start of Ramos' revolution.

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