minutes.
Spurs “celebrated” 125 years of being around with a hell of a 4-4 draw against Villa at the Lane last night, which pretty much summed up watching Spurs for a while now.
Can score, can attack with passion and flair but can’t keep a clean sheet and can’t hold a lead for any great length of time. As soon as Villa got a corner I said to the bloke next to me “defending a corner straight after taking the lead, this has got disaster written all over it” and I was right.
I’ve stuck up for Paul Robinson through all the stick he’s got over the last number of months, for both Spurs and England because it has in the main been unjustified stick but last night he gave his detractors too much ammunition. He’d shown his class just a little earlier but the two real shocking errors he produced gifted the Villa a 2-1 advantage. Certainly not the types of errors you’d associate with Pat Jennings who was watching on as part of the celebration parade of legends. What has happened to Robbo? He doesn’t look England’s #1 at the mo, can Pat be brought in as goalkeeping coach, cause I wonder about Hans Segers role.
There has to be something done about the defending as well, it’s not just Robinson that’s poor at corners, they all look pretty shell shocked every time one comes over. Is it the defence has no confidence in the ‘keeper and vice versa, so nobody has any confidence in anything. Martin says they need more time as they are young and only been together since the summer but who is coaching them to flap around like this?
There’s a serious lack of leadership on the park, Ledley looks no sooner to ever coming back
And Martin Jol, who looked resigned to losing his job as Villa took a 4-1 lead early in the second half really needs to thank Martin O’Neill for his inspired substitutions, inspired for Spurs that is. Thanks MO’N for bringing on the eternal hider Petrov and the lazy bum Harewood, you need to forget the whinging about penalties and offsides not given and look at the dullards you brought on as the main reason you didn’t walk away with all three points.
Saw Petrov a lot in Jock football and he used to hide regularly there, that’s when he wasn’t diving for penalties and remember discussions with Celtic fans about how crap he is and how he would be found out in a better league and I’m rather glad the Villa boss has proved me right, I would even go as far as to say he’s even worse than Jenas. Harewood was also a big mistake for Villa as he gave the penalty away and was totally lazy in his attempts to relieve the pressure of Spurs attacks, as he panted and puffed after only a few minutes on the park, can see why Moore looked so narked at being taken off for him.
It could have been a complete disaster of a celebration, it turned into a memorable game but saying that it was a home game where they let in four against a team who hadn’t scored away from home all season, though they showed some passion and fight in the end and most looked as if they are backing the manager when they ran to him after Kaboul scored the equaliser (pictured).
One wonders what the great one, Sir Bill Nicholson would have made of it, well he wouldn’t be turning in his grave as his ashes were spread on the touchline.
‘Pool up next, just have to hope Benitez sees this as an easy game so does some mass rotating of his squad.
The “highlights”