nah nothing happened here, move along now.
It wasn’t even really a game of two halves as a second half of actual football just didn’t happen.
And as for the first 45 minutes well the engine was ticking over but bar a couple of minutes here and there it never really slipped into first gear and only once got into second. But it was a good victory, another three points and an addition of two to the goal difference.
Yes Gomes had a couple of saves to make and he made them well – another clean sheet for the big Brazilian – but what players Pompey had – didn’t have the full quota on the bench – just weren’t there. They look to have pretty much given up on the league and are saving themselves for the main performance, not this the dress rehearsal, the cup semi-final in a fortnight’s time. But then Spurs weren’t exactly on fire as it did take them nearly half an hour to score the first and finish the game then and there.
Bale again, another man-of-the-match performance bombing on, getting past the myriad of players trying to stop him, takes it on the run from Modric and pings it between the triangle of Pompey defenders, right onto the head of Crouch, who unlike those around him wanted the ball. As the defence lollygagged, Crouch remembered it had been a while since he last scored.
Not long after second gear was slipped into for a minute as again Bale hared forward, eventually resulting in a corner. From that Huddlestone slammed the woodwork with a left-footed pile driver, after a bit of head tennis from the rebound the ball looped to Crouch for his volley to hit the the still shuddering post.
On the other side we finally saw Kyle Walker get a run out at right-back. Not a bad debut for the full 90 minutes, though of course he’s cup-tied for the semi. You do feel Bentley will benefit from someone who has a bit more pace than Colrluka making overlaps. A nice bit of work by him, after he finally got the ball from Bentley, getting to the byline and picking out the lurking Modric just outside the box. Though Modric didn’t seem to be anticipating the pass and was a touch on his heels, this probably led to yet another of target shot by the little Croatian – he does have a number of them – before the ball fell to Kranjcar and the second Pompey old boy made sure of the three points.
After that Pompey lumbered around, Spurs felt sorry for them and didn’t throw any more punches the ref thought of calling it a TKO on the basis of a no-contest, Avram Grant’s mother was stopped before she could get on the pitch and hit those nasty men with her handbag. Players dropped like flies, Dawson hopefully a precautionary move by ‘Arry. On the other side Hreidarsson wasn’t so lucky as apparently the players heard his Achilles go like the crack of a bullet.
Spurs just have to make sure they lift their game for the Cup semi-final, as Pompey want that, they are actually bothered about it, even if David James stating he had nothing to do, whereas Gomes had saves to make does sound a bit stupid when the latter wasn’t picking the ball out of his net once, never mind twice.