And there is a return to the Lane for three ex-youth players - Jordan Archer, Calum Butcher and Joe Martin - who will be out to prove to the existing Spurs side that they are worthy of being on the same terms as them.

Added to comments made by Steve Morison that the elite clubs don't produce players who are up to a  physical challenge, there will be a different challenge to face up to, but Millwall's physical approach nearly cost them against Leicester, with Jake Cooper's rash second yellow spurring them on, but they were only playing Leicester.  It will need a more controlled aggression if Millwall are to use muscle to intimidate Spurs.  Hopefully, we will have learned from the Akinfenwa experience and will approach the game with a bit more nous..

Morison doesn't need to fly into opponents, as he has enough experience to play well and with the added zip to Tottenham's play, his team-mates might find themselves stranded if they make committed tackles ... either being left by Spurs players in their wake or by picking up unnecessary cautions.  With Tottenham's possession football, the loss of a player will be felt more keenly in this tie than when they faced the Foxes.

The defence might not have faced anything like the Tottenham formation, although some will have been at the club when Harry Kane was on loan there, but he is a very different player now.  Cummings got into the opposition box to score the winner against Leicester, but his work might need to be more involve din his own area on Sunday and how Millwall cope with Walker and Davies will be interesting.  If Spurs are on their game, it will be wave after wave of attacks for the Lions to defend.

Jordan Archer has proved in the cup run that he is a brave and agile keeper, something the Spurs management will know about, while Butcher and Martin (son of Alvin) have moved around before ending up at the Den.  Both are solid defenders, who can pop up at the other end.  Martin takes a good free-kick and Butcher adds height to their set-piece routines.

Neil Harris has been getting a good amount of of his squad and with some good wide players in Fred Onyedimna, Shane Ferguson and Aiden O'Brien, they can supply Morison and Gregory, who will attack crosses with vigour.   Gregory scores regularly and will need to be watched, as he takes up good positions in the box.  Their midfield will try and close down the space for Tottenham to play in, but they might find it a different matter to keep that up for the whole game, as Wycombe found.  Spurs will no doubt be briefed that this will be no easy game and that they will have to withstand a fierce side, willing to prove their previous victories were well earned.  However, the way Spurs have been performing lately, they should be able to get past Millwall to get through, but they need to be aware of the shock tactics that might be employed.

A good end result for Spurs, I think, but the performance might need to be a bit more prosaic.
 

TV
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Internet :
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15  Eric DIER
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN

12  Victor WANYAMA  (17  Moussa SISSOKO  78)
29  Harry WINKS

16  Kieran TRIPPIER
20  DELE Alli    (  9  Vincent JANSSEN  74  )
  7  Heung-Min SON     
33  Ben DAVIES

10  Harry KANE  (c)  (23  Christian ERIKSEN  10  )

Unused subs: 
  1  Hugo LLORIS
  2  Kyle WALKER
27  Kevin WIMMER
25  Josh ONOMAH


 

  2  Shaun CUMMINGS
17  Byron WEBSTER
24  Jake COOPER
  5  Tony CRAIG  (c)

14  Jed WALLACE  (18  Shane FERGUSON  70)
22  Aiden O'BRIEN
  6  Shaun WILLIAMS
20  Steve MORISON  (10  Fred ONYEDIMNA 58)
  8  Ben THOMPSON  (16  Calum BUTCHER  46)

  9  Lee GREGORY

Unused subs: 
40  Harry GIRLING
  4  Shaun HUTCHINSON
  7  David WORRALL
12  Mahlon ROMEO

 

With the loss of Harry Kane in the tenth minute, Spurs might have struggled to get past Millwall to reach the semi-final of the FA Cup, but Heung-Min Son stepped up to take the bull by the horns and take the match ball home with him, as he hit a hat-trick in Tottenham's 6-0 win. 

Pre-match hyperbole from Steve Morison about Premier League players being wimpy backfired in his face, with beefy performances from the Tottenham back line restricting the visiting Lions to just four shots, none of which hit the target, while Spurs were much more accurate with 15 out of 32 on the goal and six found the net, meaning the League One side's wins over Watford, Leicester City and Bournemouth were put into sharp focus. 

The trouble predicted seemed to be reasonably well marshalled by the police and stewards, plus a large number of hard-hatted security staff.  They couldn't stop Millwall's fan abusing Son and it all seemed so unnecessary.  They sing "No One Likes Us", but they might if they showed more self-deprecating humour, as in the "Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be will be, We're Going to Shrewsbury" song.  There is a sense of humour behind all that posturing bravado.

The fans were let down by their players, who failed to trouble the Spurs defence and failed to stop us playing our natural game, by having 72% possession and that was what killed Millwall.  They probably don't face the possession game that Spurs play in League One, so they struggled.  From Millwall's kick-off, Tottenham won possession and that set the tone for the game that saw them totally boss it.   Much like a number of teams who come to the Lane, they didn't really have much of  game plan, because if it was to defend for the 90+ minutes, it was never going to work.  It did for 30 minutes, but King was forced into early stops within the first five minutes from Winks' curling effort, Son's hot straight at him and Kane's narrow angled drive, which saw the in form striker get his ankle caught between Cooper's legs and that ended his participation in this tie.  Losing Harry after six minutes was a blow and Spurs brought on Eriksen in his place and pushed Son forward.  

To start with, Son was getting muscled off the ball and Trippier was put in good positions wide on the right, but his control let him down and the ball ran off for goal-kicks.  Sonny manufactured some space in the box to shoot low, but keeper King blocked it with his legs and then a defender got in the way of an Eriksen strike.  Winks was busy an his passes were spreading the play well, while others were finding passes inside Cummings, the Millwall right back, for Davies to get in behind him.  It took 20 minutes for Millwall to get around the Spurs goal and Morison's shot was blocked by Davies for a corner, which was taken back-pedalling at the far post by Vorm. 

The scoring should have started when Spurs went down the other end, as Dele took the ball around the penalty spot and that was where it should have ended up, as Craig dragged him down by his shirt, but Tottenham getting anything out of Martin Atkinson in the FA Cup is more than any Spurs fan can imagine in their wildest dreams.  Then Son had a chance, when Dele half-blocked the keeper's kick out and it fell to the South Korean 35 yards from goal, but the ball was spinning wildly and he couldn't get it under control before players and the keeper got back.  A long ball to Gregory saw him barge into Dier, who shouldn't have let the ball bounce, before it ran to Morison, who tried to curl it past Vorm, but only managed to curl it wide past the far post. 

Jan obviously fancies a goal soon, as he struck a cleared corner back at goal with great power, but it was always rising over the bar.  Not that it mattered too much, as two yellow shirted defenders went for a ball and only succeeded in heading it straight up in the air.  They were so intent on getting physical with Dele, who was underneath it, that when it came off him, Christian Eriksen was alone to pivot on his left foot and strike a low right foot shot past King, who was taken by surprise.  It was a technically excellent goal, as it would have been easy to leather it and see it sky over the bar, but he kept it low and across the keeper to find the opposite bottom corner from right of the goal, fifteen yards out.

The goal didn't change Millwall's approach and from an Eriksen corner Wanyama rose high above the rest to head against the face of the bar.  And when Dier broke up a Lions move inside his own half, he passed to Dele Alli, who took the ball forward into the Millwall half before sliding it right to the advancing central defender.  Eric slipped it wide right to Son, whose mis-control frustrated Alli, but he ran at Cooper, who stood off him, taking a left foot shot that curled beyond King's reach and hit the same corner Eriksen had with his goal. 

At 2-0, Spurs still attacked and getting stick from the away support, Dele took it out on the ball, smashing a shot that went into the top tier of the Millwall fans in the Park Lane.  It might have been his aim to take them out one by one !!  As it was, the half-time break came and without a half-time guest, it was left to ponder on how bad Kane's injury might be.  It was the last thing we needed and early in the second half Victor Wanyama needed treatment after hard man Morison caught him cowardly from behind when the ball had gone.  Millwall had brought on an ex-Spurs youngster Calum Butcher for Ben Thompson, who the Lions fans claimed was one of their own, but failed to get involved in the first half.

The second half was almost as one way traffic as the first.  Dier played a ball into the edge of the penalty area from deep and Alli got on the end, just failing to get the ball under control to get a decent contact on his shot, before Ben Davies went on a run form deep that took him into the area, but his right foot shot was scuffed wide.  When Christian moved forward with the ball Cooper backed off and the resulting shot stung King's hands, as he pushed it well wide.  Williams had a rare effort for the visitors, but he skied Morison's lay-back into the top tier of his own supporters.  Thirteen minutes into the half, Trippier played a delicate chipped pass forward.  Son had made a move wide and lost Cooper, as he turned back inside and watched the ball intently as he got into the box and volleyed it waist high past King for his second goal of the afternoon.  It was another piece of technical skill and Son didn't try to hit it too hard, just get it on target and with enough on it to leave the goalkeeper without a chance to save.

Spurs worked a neat free-kick, with Winks shaping to curl a ball into the middle, but pulling it back low to Dele on the edge of the box, but he hit the ball wide.  It was followed by Millwall's best chance of the game, as substitute Onyedimna squeezed between Wanyama and Davies wide on their right to play the ball in low to Wallace, who had a rush of blood and from a position ahead of the near post smashed the ball wide from close in. 

Son was on the hunt for his hat-rick and smashed a shot over from a tight angle on the left, after coming in off the wing.  Wanyama had a go with a curler that deflected off Craig for a corner, which went over everyone when it was played in by Eriksen.  Christian had a big hand in the fourth goal, as Winks passed it to him on the right and he looked up before sliding a pass low across the six yard box for Dele to run in at the far post beyond Cooper to hit the ball into the roof of the net.

Tottenham were enjoying exploiting the space in wide positions, but the crosses were being cut out, so Dele and Victor went off to be replaced by Janssen and Sissoko.  Janssen obviously fancied it, as he ignored everyone else to smash a fierce shot well wide from 25 yards out.  He was better placed when Eriksen played the ball left to Davies from deep within in his own half, then Ben moved it on quickly to Sonny.  Putting in a couple of Lollipops (as Ron Atkinson used to call them), he unselfishly looked up and passed the ball square to Vincent, standing twelve yards out and he hit a first time shot that nestled in the bottom left corner of the goal as he looked at it, going in just inside the post.  The relief of the Spurs fans was probably just as keenly felt as his own, with the duck broken for scoring a goal from open play.  It was just as well that one had gone in, as four minutes later, he was presented with a clear header by Jan's cross, but he out it straight at the keeper, when it was probably an easier chance than the one he scored from.

Spurs were still looking for more goals and Winks struck a shot that flew a foot or two over the top, Janssen nearly returned the favour for Son, but his ball in was a little too far ahead and then Sissoko broke forward past four opponents as added time ticked down and played a pass right to Eriksen.  He chipped the ball into the box and Son lost Craig and hit the ball with a left foot volley.  He could have put it anywhere, but hit the shot straight at the keeper and it looked as though hi shat-trick opportunity had gone ... only, King let the ball squirm out of his grasp, through his legs and into the green behind the line to make it 6-0 with Son claiming half of the goals !!

There was no time to re-start and Millwall were probably happy about that, with their good defensive record and a 17 game unbeaten run left in tatters.  Spurs were far too good for them and for all of Morison's rhetoric about not being tough enough, their physical approach, pushing, shirt-pulling and late challenges, it showed that playing the game properly will win you more games than going out to intimidate your opponents.  With a different referee, it could have been double figures.

As it was 6-0 is our highest FA Cup win in over 44 years and sees us through to a Wembley semi-final.  Is that a good thing with our record at Wembley and our record in semi-finals over the last twenty years ?  Who cares ?  Securing this victory without Harry Kane and playing so well will only give the players more confidence and being one game away from a Cup Final will be a new experience for the majority of them.

There were outstanding performances all over the pitch this afternoon.  Trippier played very well after a couple of nervy moments, Winks' passing and energy were infectious, Jan and Toby dealt with what came their way - little as it was - and Wanyama was huge, showing skill to match his tackling and break-up play.  Eriksen did well coming on early in the game and making things happen, while Sonny was  displaying all the assets that Kane does.  His first was Kane like - cutting in and curling one round the goalie; his second like Kane's against West Brom at the Lane and the third, picking out space in the box to get a shot on target ... even with a helping hand from the keeper.

A strong Spurs side were easily two levels above Millwall on this showing and you wonder how Watford, Bournemouth and Leicester lost to them.  They showed little of their recent form and maybe they will have learned from this game that they cannot back off players and let them run on without tracking back.  But Tottenham's passing and movement was top class in this match and left Millwall chasing shadows.  The next tie for Tottenham will be harder, with Arsenal and Manchester City already through and Chelsea or Manchester United to come and join the balls in the bag for the semi-final draw. 

Who do you want ?

Does that matter either ?

Purcell Cole