27  Christian KABASELE
  6  Ben WILMOT
  4  Craig DAWSON  (  -  Francisco SIERRALTA  58)
  3  Jeremy NGAKIA  (  -  Kane CRITCHLOW  89)

14  Nathaniel CHALOBAH        (52  Daniel PHILLIPS  58      )
24  Tom DELE-BASHIRU  (  -  Glenn MURRAY 64)
  -  Pervis ESTUPINAN  (  -  Marc NAVARRO  71)
  8  Tom CLEVERLEY (c)        (  -  Toby STEVENSON  88)

20  Domingos QUINA  (13  Adalberto PENARANDA  64    ))

18  Andre GRAY  (17  Joao PEDRO  52      )

Unused subs: 
47  Adam PARKES
  -  Derek AGYAKWA


 

24  Serge AURIER
  6  Davinson SANCHEZ
38  Cameron CARTER-VICKERS
49  Dennis CIRKIN  (21  Juan FOYTH  46)

26  Tanguy NDOMBELE  (47  Jack CLARKE  46)
48  Harvey WHITE  (44  Jamie BOWDEN  81)

20  DELE Alli
11  Erik LAMELA
27  Lucas MOURA

  7  Heung-Min SON (c)

Unused subs: 
  -  George MARSH
  -  Jeremie OKEDINA
54  Alfie DEVINE
53  Dale SCARLETT

Watford put in a testing performance for Tottenham's last pre-season friendly before the real action starts in a fortnight's time, winning 2-1 with a forthright display that Spurs could not match, losing out 1-2.

There was a quick start to the game, with both sides looking sharp in the opening minutes.  Spurs had the first opening, when Lamela played the ball on to Lucas Moura, but his effort was blocked.  Then Watford's Quina shot over from a tight angle on the left of the goal and the same player looked to sneak onto a cross from Nathaniel Chalobah on the right wing, but Cameron Carter-Vickers' challenge was enough to snuff out the danger.

Spurs won a corner, that Aurier glanced wide of the goal making a good run across his marker, with Serge involved in the next decent move, pulling a ball back into the area, but behind Dele.  As it was, Watford opened the scoring, with Quina, running at the Spurs defence from  inside the Tottenham half after Moura had lost possession 20 yards into Watford territory.  Gray pulled defenders away with his run allowing Quina to shape going outside and then coming inside to drill a shot past Hart's left from 25 yards out to the right of middle.  With 20 minutes on the clock, it gave Watford a lead their attacking intent might have shaded.

Spurs looked to get back into the game, but Watford were taking a stern approach and some snide fouls were going in, one by Cleverley on Moura, as he was going away form him and then Chalobah got a yellow card for a late one on Harvey White.  Some neat interchanges just weren't quite coming off, so when Dele-Bashiru broke into the Spurs box and Dennis Cirkin was all over him him, the referee pointed to the spot.  Without usual penalty taker Troy Deeney, Andre Gray stepped up and struck it hard and low into the corner of the goal, just past Hart's left hand, having gone the right way.

Jose would have been looking for a response and when Lamela took a return pass from dele, he was in the box, but Ben Wilmot produced a last gasp challenge to deny him time to sort out a shot.  There was a shot from Davinson Sanchez up for a corner in the second phase, but it was going wide.  In added time, a Watford free kick picked out Kabasele in the box but Hart saved easily and then played a long ball upfield for Erik Lamela, who was on his own, but Ngakia was quicker to the ball than the Argentine.

It was a half that handed the initiative to Watford and allowed them to force our defence to back off.  Missing so many internationals due to call up for Nations League and Under-21 European Championship qualifiers, it was very much a mix and match team, but they have had tie to work together and some have been playing most of the friendlies, so there should have been some level of understanding.

Half-time saw changes to the Tottenham team, with Clarke on for Ndombele pushing further forward, with Dele dropping in alongside White in the defensive two.  Although Spurs were more aggressive at the start of the half, Quina almost extended the lead two minutes in, when he ran past the defence onto a ball over the top and lobbed Gazzaniga, on for Hart, but it drifted wide.  Spurs did counter with Lamela putting a ball into the box at waist height and Wilmot did well to get the ball over his own crossbar with his knee. However, Watford hit on the break form our corner and Gray got to the ball before Foyth or Carter-Vickers and tried to cutely lift the ball over Paulo, but again, it was wide of the mark.  It was the last thing the Hornets front man did in the game, as it looked as though he pulled something and was substituted.

Jack Clarke showed what he can do (as Joe Hart was telling him in the last game), when he put in a low ball from close to the dead ball line and Lamela got there, only for his shot to be blocked by Chalobah.  Then Dele put Clarke in and his quickly taken shot from the right flew just over the bar. A little spell of pressure around the hour brought a free-kick and a corner, but nothing was created form them, although shortly after Moura set up Erik for a powerful effort that was saved well by Bachmann at his near post. 

Gazzaniga was in the right place for Kabasele's header from a free-kick that went straight at him, while Phillips of Watford and Dele exchanged yellow cards, before Pedro also collected a caution.  After a couple of corners, Harvey White played Lamela into the box, where he was brought down by Glenn Murray for a penalty.  Captain Heung-Min Son took the responsibility and sent Bachmann the wrong way as he hit the bottom corner of the left hand side of the goal. 

Spurs almost broke through the defence when a neat, one-touch move down the right but Aurier's cross came to nothing, while Son's run down the left with a couple of minutes left ended with a cross that the keeper only parried and as Dele went for it, he was bundled over, but no penalty was given.  As the game went into added time at the end of the match, Gazzaniga went up for it.  He didn't get to it and the ball was hacked away with Navarro trying his luck from the halfway line, but Son had seen the danger and raced back to clear the ball off the line.

It kept the score at 1-2, but that was how it finished shortly after that action, ending Tottenham's winning run, but while Spurs have been more aggressive in pre-season, they were out-fought by Watford, who were no going to take any prisoners, as they tried to convince anyone watching that they won't be in the Championship for long.  Well, it is a tough division and one that they will need to be tough in, but they will have to realise quickly that they need to have a bit of quality too.  They were deprived of some of their better players because of international call-ups, as were Spurs, but it looked like we suffered more because of that.

Hopefully, we came out of it without any injuries and Mourinho will have to do his work on the training pitch between now and the Everton match to get things right, with not a lot of time with the full squad once they return form international duty ... hopefully uninjured !

Stanford Rivers