Kaboul (foul on Downing) 18
 

20  Guy DEMEL
  5  James TOMKINS
  2  Winston REID
  3  George McCARTNEY

23  Stewart DOWNING 
21  Mohamed DIAME
16  Mark NOBLE
  4  Kevin NOLAN (c)  (  7  Matt JARVIS 88)
14  Matt TAYLOR

  9  Andy CARROLL (24  Carlton COLE 84)

Unused subs: 
22  Juusi JAASKELAINEN
  8  Pablo ARMERO
19  James COLLINS
12  Ricardo VAZ TE
47  NOCERINO
 

16  Kyle NAUGHTON     
  4  Younes KABOUL     
20  Michael DAWSON (c)     
  3  Danny ROSE

  7  Aaron LENNON
  8  PAULINHO  (30  SANDRO      65)
23  Christian ERIKSEN
22  Gylfi SIGURDSSON  (  9  Roberto SOLDADO  66    )

37  Harry KANE  (  6  Vlad CHIRICHES 28)
10  Emmanuel ADEBAYOR

Unused subs: 
24  Brad FRIEDEL
32  Zeki FRYERS
39  Alex PRITCHARD
42  Nabil BENTALEB

 

Any chance Spurs had of getting anything from this derby went along with Younes Kaboul, sent off for a foul when he was adjudged to be the last man, leaving West Ham to bombard the penalty area and get the rub of the green on most occasions, as Spurs struggled to match their physical approach to the match.

Tottenham had brought in Gylfi Sigurdsson for the injured Nacer Chadli, while West Ham stiffened up their midfield by replacing the attacking wide man Matt Jarvis with the more functional Matt Taylor.

Within the first minute, Kane shut down Adrian as he prepared to kick the ball out and blocked the clearance, but the ball went wide of the goal. When West Ham earned their first set piece, Adebayor ducked out of a header when the ball was nodded back across goal and a weak overhead kick went straight into Lloris’ hands fortunately. Spurs broke away quickly from the next Hammers attack and Gylfi got away on the right, playing the ball across for Eriksen to set up a shot for Adebayor, but he struck a weak effort, low at Adrian.

A corner posed problems for Spurs when the ball pinged around the box until Demel shovelled a shot up in the air, that dropped on the top of the bar and Hugo had to be alert to grab the ball as it came down in front of goal. The dead ball situations were perhaps always likely to be the way the Irons would get around the Spurs goal and Andy Carroll was always the focus of their aim. One time they almost got in on the floor came from a short back-pass from Dawson that Lloris had to push past Carroll before clearing.

Spurs were also patient in possession and a move on 15 minutes ended with Paulinho meeting Naughton’s cross with his head, but it went straight at Adrian. They were passing the ball well, but West Ham’s reliance on the aerial threat of Carroll saw him knock the ball down for Downing to come inside and shoot over from 20 yards out. Contrasting styles meant Spurs didn’t earn their first corner until 22 minutes in, but like most of our corners, it came to nothing. The ball wasn’t cleared out of play, but went back to Eriksen and he brought the ball down with great skill and sent in a low ball to the near post, where a defender smacked it against a team-mate in a moment of panic.

In the 24th minute, Downing picked up on a rebound and the path to goal was brought to a halt when Younes Kaboul clashed with him as the winger came across him. The impact was outside the box and Dawson was coming in from the side that Downing was taking the ball, but Dowd produced a red card to dismiss the French defender. With a free-kick inside the D, Carroll fired a powerful drive at goal, but Lloris was wise to the man on the end of the wall peeling away and rose to push the ball over. However, from the corner, West Ham took a 27th minute lead when Carroll headed back from the far post, but Harry Kane got a touch and took the ball past Sigurdsson on the line.

0-1 down and a player down, Spurs brought on Chiriches for Kane and had to go with only one up top. It was hard, with the home side’s tails up and closing them down when on the ball, with that pressure winning the ball and allowing McCartney almost got on the end of a Downing cross at the far post, but Lennon got back to do enough to put him off. Lloris was called upon to make a double save when he punched clear at his near post as Nolan closed in for a header, then recovered very well to dive to his left to fingertip Taylor’s drive from the edge of the box wide of the goal.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was all West Ham for the rest of the half, with only a thirty yard effort from Paulinho that was blocked as Tottenham’s attacking threat. West Ham broke away two minutes before the break, but this time Noble’s winning of a free-kick only brought a booking for Dawson, but the resulting free-kick would have been of no consequence, as the former Middlesbrough winger’s shot was not high enough to curl over the wall. However, in the middle of the wall, Paulinho turned one way and Adebayor the other, allowing the ball through to beat Lloris’ dive. At 0-2, there didn’t seem a way back, with over 45 minutes still to play.

It almost became three before Sherwood had a chance to get the players in the dressing room. A cleared ball in dropped on the edge of the box and Carroll hit a low volley that missed Lloris’ right hand post by a foot or so. But there was little to indicate that Spurs would make a dent in the score-line, as they were struggling to hold the ball and make much of an impression on the home team. Another match when we didn’t score early and ended up suffering for it.

Trevor Brooking gave a very interesting interview but the fans in his stand were more concerned about what might happen in the coming three quarters of an hour, with the home fans happy that they are beating us for the third time this season and thinking that Sam Allardyce was some sort of tactical genius. You don’t win much for beating Spurs three times in a season though.

Spurs tried to get in behind the West Ham defence, with Eriksen’s run taking the ball away from Adrian, who had come out to the edge of the box, but they had numbers back to crowd Spurs out. The attack from the home side on the right hand side saw Diame hit a scissors kick right down the middle of the goal, but Hugo got down to it well and then was alive to the loose ball running in front of goal and kicked the ball away from Nolan as he closed in on the ball. The Irons were playing for set-pieces and Spurs were out-numbered as well as lacking in knowing how to defend them. In contrast, Spurs were now unable to free Lennon to run at McCartney and any time players came inside, they ran into a wall of purple and blue shirts.

A straight free-kick brought two players challenging Carroll and the ball dropped for Nolan in the clear round the penalty spot, but Lloris was on him in a flash and deflected the point-blank range shot over. From the resulting corner, Diame had a free header, but put it wide.

Tottenham did manage a break, with Eriksen slipping Lennon in and then playing it wide left to Rose, but he shanked a shot across the penalty box and the chance was gone. From that, the Irons broke away and Downing’s low cross was dwelt on, allowing Naughton to nip in as the home team tried to set up a shot. Fortune was favouring West ham, but not because they were being particularly brave, just lucky. The bounce of the ball went their way often and Dowd allowed a lot of stuff to go in their favour. Why is a foul in Tottenham’s final third by Carroll on Dawson not a yellow when it would be the other way around ?

On the hour, Eriksen almost caught Adrian out with a cross come shot to the near post that the keeper only just managed to smuggle around the post. Another soft free-kick brought a shot by Taylor that Lloris held low at his right hand post, then Spurs worked the ball out from back to front and Lennon finished it off with a shot that kept rising over the bar. A double substitution by Spurs changed nothing, with Sandro immediately giving away a free kick, which brought another corner. Nothing came from that and then Downing showed his true form with a cross under no pressure that went way behind the goal. When Noble dragged Eriksen back by his shorts, Dowd waved play on in an example of his poor refereeing of the match. When Soldado fouled Demel, Nolan got in his face and Soldado pushed him off earning a yellow card, but Nolan got no punishment for his aggressive attitude.

Soldado was played in on the right corner of the box and he shot but dragged it across the area when Spurs made a rare attack, then Lennon pulled a shot wide as he ran centrally at the West Ham defence, then Eriksen picked out Soldado spinning off McCartney, but his effort back across goal was blocked by McCartney.

It was another weak free-kick when Diame fell over that led to Aaron Lennon throwing two blocks to stop efforts from the edge of the box getting through.

Sandro’s 86th minute cross was heading for the middle before it hit Taylor’s arm, but Dowd, in another marvellous piece of officiating (along with his linesman who had a better view) failed to spot it. Not that it might have affected the final score, but Spurs continued to attack. A weak header out dropped to Sandro in the D, but his volley flew way over the bar.

Substitute Jarvis flopped to the ground in the box as Dawson challenged, but at least Dowd wasn’t falling for that as easily as Jarvis did. A minute into injury time, Rose came off the right and when he got into the box right of centre, he drove a right foot shot that Adrian dived upwards to just tip over the bar.

Poor use of the ball when Spurs had it (before and after the sending off) piled pressure on our own goal and only Hugo Lloris kept the score down to a respectable level. Losing Kaboul meant that it was a tough task to get back into the game and the second half performance was more solid, but West Ham were comfortable with a two goal lead. If we could have got a goal back, it might have been interesting, but there was still only one man up for them, as they tied up the midfield with numbers.

“Tottenham Hotspur, It's happening again” the home crowd sung. Three wins over us in a season, staying in the Premier League on reaching 40 points and a clean sheet sent the Irons home happy. Maybe that is what we should be striving for if that is the definition of a successful season.

Kirk Hammerton