Spurs : Thought and Deed

What I thought of referee Steve Bennett's deeds will not be fit for a forum like this, so I will restrict myself to those of Tottenham, who failed to live up ot their recent reputation and dropped more points, with a slice of luck involved in Everton's winner.

It was only one goal that separated the two sides at the end, but, although Everton forced Heurelho Gomes to work throughout the game, Spurs created enough chances to have got at least a point out of the game.

Maybe they didn't deserve that, as their build-up play was laboured and lacked a killer final pass, with more costly a cutting finish, but the efforts that were made within shooting range were all hit wide or at Howard.  At the other end, the much-maligned Gomes restored some of his reputation with some good decision making and some reflex saves, which will go towards re-building his battered confidence.  The goal cannot be put down to him, as a quick free-kick caught Tottenham doxing and Pienaar was left on the left side of the box to drill a shot at goal, that the Brazilian probaly had covered until Corluka's leg intervened and took it the opposite way.

Aaron Lennon had created havoc last week against Blackburn, but Everton had put Pineaar and Lescott on duty to block him off, so the lack of supply eventually moved him to the left wing in the second half, where he is less effective.  Without that line of supply and with Huddlestone being frustrated by the lack of options from his forwards' movement and the number of players Everton got back behind the ball, the creativity that might have sparked a goal out of nothing.  The closest Spurs came to that was a Bentley free-kick that was pulled back out of the danger area to where Pavlyuchenko had dropped off, but his shot was too high.  The next time the two linked up, Roman got in front of Jagielka, but Howard leapt out to push the shot over the bar.

Too many Spurs players looked slow in thought and deed today.  For once, Gomes would not be included among them, but the team need to get back into the winning habit soon, as the bottom three hang perilously closely below Spurs at the moment.  Perhaps the return of Jenas and Modric might provide a little more spark soon and help get more of the 11 shots off target on it.

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