the Burnley boss, but it’ll do.
Spurs survived the short turnaround and the early kick off to eventually see off the Burnley Bumpkins thanks to a penalty that the Burnley fans should have been grateful for.
The usual Burnley howling, moaning and crying came at the break after Spurs were awarded a penalty late into added time, with claims that it was soft.
But up until that point the visitors had done absolutely nothing, much like their last six years in the Premier League, it was a flat back 10, full of clogging and time wasting from the first whistle. No football even attempted.
If it wasn’t for the pen they wouldn’t have got out of their own box, never mind their own half, and actually bother doing anything, as they did in the second half. The was nothing wrong with the awarding of the pen either. Barnes was flapping his arms about, knowing it was making his body bigger and giving him more chance to block the ball.
So then you get the retired players saying “not in my day”, much like Keown for the pen against his lot midweek. Except it would be, Keown started in the mid 80s, any push or manhandling where the ball was the last thing on the mid of the fouler was punished by the ref.
Of course it would be exactly what the “proper football man”, ginger gonad lookalike Dyche would come out with. That’s the only shame about things, of the three teams fighting to avoid that final relegation spots I’d prefer Burnley to go down, even though Spurs have a decent record against them in recent years. You just won’t miss their non-football. But my dislike for Dyche means I’d find it rather good that after all the howls about them sacking him, if another manager came in and saved them.
Anyway, it was the standard Spurs versus the time wasting flat back 10 routine. They had all of the ball while neither taking chances or taking shots. Lot of fannying about. Probably epitomised by the one change Conte made. Moura for Kulusevski was forced on Conte due to the Swede being ill, though he did make the bench. A virus apparently. Moura was his usual self. Lot of huff. Lot of puff. Little or no end product.
Then of course when Spurs did get through Nick Pope was doing his best Tim Krul impersonation.
Hey… we’ve all seen this movie before.
Kane buried his penalty leaving Pope standing still. In the second half Burnley actually tried to play football and it looked like Spurs were gonna be Spursy but bar hitting the post Hugo only had one save to make in the whole game and that came in the first half. While Pope won man of the match.
So back up to fourth and now the pressure is on Woolwich, after their extra 30 hour rest. Loose against Newcastle and Spurs only need a draw in the final game against Norwich, what with the superior goal difference.