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The battling Brighton team that blew into
White Hart Lane produced a good performance, without a hint of fear,
but the difference in class was shown by Robbie Keane's finishing that
won the right to progress to the Fourth Round for Tottenham.
The yellow shirt count in the Brighton
end was probably not as high as the club shop would have wanted, but
their was a wave of colour and of yellow balloons that floated onto
the pitch. It was reminiscent of a Cup Final and that was what
it was for the First Division side, but they nearly took the
'silverware' on the day. It all started early on, with Robinson
saving from Hart and Knight, but the closest they came to opening the
scoring was the former Gillingham midfielder Richard Carpenter hit a
drive from 25 yards out that hit the angle and bounced back into play
after a quarter of an hour. Spurs had a chance near the start
when Defoe had a shot blocked by ex-Spur Guy Butters, who was captain
for the day.
Stephen Kelly had been picked for the
side in place of the rested Pamarot and he enjoyed a good game, with
the opportunity to push on down the right. His surge in the 20th
minute found him in space, but the ball would not come down for him to
get a shot in. Carpenter was belying his age and got into the
box again on 26 minutes, to hit a left foot volley that went well wide
of the post. Spurs had their turn to hit the woodwork just on
the half hour, as King took a quick free-kick to Edman, who put in a
cross to Kelly's head. The ball was nodded into Keane's run and
he deftly flicked the ball over Kuipers, but the ball came back off
the crossbar for the second home game running for the Irish striker.
Then, just five minutes before the
interval, Spurs took the lead. It came from a dead ball
situation, but this time it was a short corner, with Ziegler putting
the cross into the box, where Ledley King timed his run to meet it and
as the ball floated up off his head, the Brighton keeper was left
rooted to the spot. As he tried to get back, the trajectory of
the ball beat him and the ball hit the back of the net to give Spurs a
1-0 advantage.
But the visitors were playing an
attacking game with two up front and a long ball freed Knight on the
left. As he broke into the area, Kelly produced a well-timed
challenge to block the ball as the little Seagulls striker shot.
Leon Knight is a lively forward and he was alert to win a header
(something he did with alarming regularity considering his lack of
inches) and Robbo had to rise to tip the ball over the top, when it
looked like it might drop just over him.
We all expected the side to get a
rocket at half-time from Jol for their slack first half showing, but
they came out even more lethargic for the second half. A dubious
free-kick was given for a jump by Ziegler on Hart and when Carpenter
ran up to take it, there was a clear gap for him to shoot low into the
bottom right hand corner of the Spurs goal from 25 yards out. It
was a poor goal to concede, as it was soon after the restart
(something we seem to be doing a lot lately) and it was bad
positioning of the wall that allowed a sight of goal from the
free-kick.
Carpenter seemed to be in the thick of
it all and soon picked up a yellow card when Brown took a quick
free-kick that hit the Brighton midfielder, who was not ten yards
away. This moved the ball ten yards closer to the Gulls goal and
Defoe stepped up to hit it, but it flew over. The equaliser had
spurred Brighton into attacking Tottenham more and this left a bit
more space to play. They found joy down the right with Mendes
and left with Edman. Defoe got played in on the left and he
turned inside to hit a low shot that Kuipers could not hold, but
recovered just before Keane got there.
The act of kicking the ball away got
Edman a caution and the ball was progressed towards the Spurs goal,
with Harding knocking in the free-kick that Hart got a firm header
to. Robinson was alive to the effort and produced a good save to
turn it aside for a corner. It was then that Tottenham began to
move players forward, with Gardner, in for Naybet, came out of defence
with the ball and with the Brighton players backing off, he hit a
shot, but it had too much height to trouble Kuipers on this
occasion. In the 77th minute, the Dutch keeper was called into
action as Ziegler hit s left footed shot from in front of the right
hand side of the box and the goalie tipped it round with a good diving
save.
With the pressure building on the
Brighton goal, it took a moment of Keano magic to turn the tie in
Tottenham's favour on 83 minutes. Edman played a delicate ball
into Robbie, who took it on his chest and hit a volley on the turn
past Butters behind him and Kuipers in goal to score a memorable
goal. It was the sharpness and awareness that we have come to
expect from him, despite his performance, which had not been great on
the day and was the focus of a lot of criticism from the Spurs
crowd. However, he never stopped wanting the ball and showed
what he could do given the right service.
With just ten minutes left, Martin Jol
had introduced young forward Mark Yeates. A lively runner with
the ball and one for the future, he produced a couple of late runs
which tantalised the visiting defenders in their area, but he was
unable to apply a suitable finish to the moves. The second saw
him and Jermain break two-on-one, but the delay in providing a bal in
to Defoe was not appreciated by the club's top scorer !! Still,
anyone who has seen Yeates play will know that there is a lot more to
come from him.
In truth, the match was not a good one
for Spurs, with a performance that was well below par from those they
have produced lately, but they were fortunate in having Keane to score
the goal he did, when Defoe was having a quiet game. The ball
was played in the air far too often and only when it was kept on the
floor, did Spurs obtain any joy from the Brighton back four. But
their ball will be in the velvet bag for the Fourth Round draw and
sometimes, you need a bit of luck or magic ... after all ... it is the
magic of the FA Cup and these things even themselves out over the
course of the season ... or so we have been constantly told this week
!!
MEHSTG TOP MAN : - LEDLEY KING
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