Babos

Bosschart
Chali
Paauwe
Mtiliga

Buffel (Kalou 46)
Goor (Magrao 63)
Loovens
Gyan (Zuiverloon 46)

Kuyt (Lazovic 79)
Smolarek (Castelen 59)

Unused subs: 
Lodewijks
Ven der Berg
Pardo

Keller

Carr (Edman 46)
Bunjevcevic
Doherty
Taricco

Redknapp (c) (Mendes 46)
Marney (Jackson 71)
Brown (Gardner 59)
Ricketts (Hughes 82)

Kanoute (Defoe 46)
Bakari

Unused subs: 
King
Fulop
Silva
Ifil

Kuyt 41
Kuyt 70

Tottenham Hotspur

Kanoute 28

Pauuwe (dissent) 89

Mendes (foul) 78

Now, the trawl of minor designer devised tournaments make the pre-season both expensive and a drag.  I decided to take the Eurosport view of things and I am glad that I did, as the game was played in first gear by players who could not perform on a bumpy, sandy and wet pitch or in what looked like humid conditions.

For the life of me, it looked like an under-par training session. They worked harder on Sunday at the Lane !!

The match itself was as untidy as the pitch.  Passes going astray, petty fouls being given and the referee happy to be the highlight of the action, by making Bakari leave the pitch when it was our corner to change his ripped shirt (not leaving of his own accord, as the "commentary" [and I use that term loosely] team suggested).

Players were perhaps worried about injuring themselves on a pitch doused in sand, with ridges in it visible from 1038 miles away and a downpour had left the centre circle under water.  Added to the news on the Spurs website that they had trained that morning, perhaps the performance should not have been a surprise.

Brown had an early shot over, something he repeated after we had gone ahead and he burst through the middle.  Spurs were sloppy in defence and failed to close people down, allowing balls to be crossed into the box and also for one-twos to be played into the area too.  From a foul on the edge of the box, a free-kick had to be saved by Keller at full stretch (in the absence of the new keeper Robinson, left at home for personal reasons).  Kasey didn't deal with it comprehensively, as he palmed it right in front of goal, but it did not result in any drastic consequences.

Spurs had a lot of joy on the right flank, where Marney was operating, but the final ball in was weak and that was much the same from either flank in the second period.  With two towering strikers in the first half, we should have been exploiting that better and only Ricketts' high cross that found Fredi at the far post, should have ended in a goal, but Kanoute headed high and the keeper comfortably saved.

Taricco was conceding too many free-kicks for silly fouls and it was only when he moved to right back after Carr's removal at half-time, that he seemed to clean up his act.  A couple of good moves saw Kanoute set up Bakari for a low shot that he directed wide from about ten yards out and then Fredi broke through the middle to drag his effort wide when in a good shooting position.  It was my first sight of Bakari, who looked like a cross between Emile Heskey and Audley Harrison.  His first touch was poor and he needs to develop a way of preventing the ball bouncing off his shins, but he did knock a couple of balls on with his head to Spurs players. Including one to Brown who burst into the area just outside the penalty box, slip a through pass to Fredi and he slipped it away under the keeper to give Tottenham the lead.

It was a good period for Spurs, as they fought for the ball and kept Feyenoord under pressure, but a weak piece of defending saw the Dutch side equalise.  A ball down their left was knocked inside and Kuyt had space to step up from 25 yards and hit an unhindered shot at goal.  Doherty attempted to beat it down, but his deflection saw the ball spin up and past Keller and just inside the post.  How many times did we see that last season ?  But it was a result of nobody closing the shooter down.

Kuyt also grabbed the second half goal, getting in front of Gardner with a diving header to power Castelen's cross past Kasey.  Gardner showed again that his concentration lapses and although well taken, the goal should never have come about.  The one thing the commentators got right was the lack of continuity in lay once all the substitutions were made.  Mendes gave the ball away too much and got knocked off it easily.  Jackson had the chance to put in some good crosses, but failed and Defoe got kicked all over the place (and elbowed in the face).  Only Edman could claim to have been a success, coming on for Carr at half-time, with the captain's armband passing to Gary Doherty !!

The three plaintive voices singing out "Come On You Spurs" were heard above the players half-hearted exhortations and I suppose the same can be expected on Thursday.

If Santini wanted the mistakes made at Rangers eliminated, he must have had a recurring bad dream watching this Kappa Cup match.  But the errors have to stop soon.

MEHSTG TOP MAN : - ERIK EDMAN