SWINDON TOWN

Friendly

Tuesday 17th July 2001

Weather : -  Heavy rain, chilly.
Crowd : -  8,595
Referee : -  Dermot Gallagher  (Banbury)
Scorers : -  Swindon Town  -  Gurney 21
                      Tottenham  -  Iversen 47, Kamanan 81, Piercy 90

Swindon Town : Griemink (McKinney 45), Hewlett, Gurney (Cobian 61), O'Halloran, Grazioli (Invincibile 61), Duke, Invincibile (Havlon 45), Heywood (Willis 45), Reeves (Davies 45) (Heywood 79), Robinson (Howe 45), Farrell (Sabin 45).

Tottenham : Sullivan (Kelly 45), Carr (Piercy 45), Jackson (Taricco 45), Bunjevcevic (Perry 45), Thelwell (Hillier 45), Young (Freund 45), Davies (Leonhardsen, 85), Anderton ( Clemence 45), Sherwood (Poyet 45), Ferdinand (Kamanan 45), Ferguson (Iversen 45).

Another win as the pre-season merry-go-round continues.  That is both on the pitch with the team being changed at half-time and also off it as Christian Ziege is still in limbo over his prolonged move to Tottenham.

At least this game showed that there is some work still to do and was more of a work-out than the Stevenage match.

Les hit an early volley over the bar, with Tottenham passing the ball well in the wet conditions, but failing to threaten the home goalkeeper that much.  There was a shock in store, when defender Andy Gurney strode forward with the ball and when he saw that nobody was coming in to tackle him, let fly from 20 yeards and the bal shot off the surface past Sullivan.  Swindon were well worth their lead and maintained it until half-time, when the expected changes were made by Glenn Hoddle.  All the team was substituted except Neil Sullivan as the break came to a close.

In the second period, Spurs stepped it up a bit and Steffen Iversen was set up when Clemence robbed Howe of the ball and Iversen was on hand to chip the ball over the sub goalie for the equaliser.  Spurs then settled into their game and they had to wait until the last ten minutes for Kamanan to seize on a chance to score his third goal in two matches.  He had already had two goes at goal before his success and certainly pulled the Robins' defence all over the place and his intelligent running made space for others.  Meanwhile, Gus Poyet failed to replicate his goalscoring form of last Friday, when he shot wide on two occasions, with the goal at his mercy. His major contribution was some nice flicks and obvious ability, but this was overshadowed by the 79th minute fracas that saw journalists licking their pencils in delight.  He was accused of elbowing Gareth Davies, who went to earth and then seven or eight players got involved in some handbags, but no action was taken.  He must temper his energy into the right channels and at this rate, he could be a cert for a red card come November 17th !!

The game was sealed in the final minute, when a long run from John Piercy from his new position of right back, saw him lose the ball.  Luckily, Iversen retrieved it and slipped Piercy in.  He went around the keeper and shot into the vacant net to wrap up a useful exercise.

Obviously, things are still a bit rusty yet, although Bunjy looked like he was born to bring the bal out of defence.  How he gets on against a better class of opposition, we will see.  Poyet was effortlessly classy and Iversen put in the best half for quite a while.  Another game on Thursday at Orient and Saturday against Wycombe will test their fitness and it will be interesting to see how much longer the "team of two halves" is utilised.

MEHSTG TOP MAN : - STEFFEN IVERSEN

Benny The Ball

All I saw was red plastic and concrete but apparently it was a 20 yard
strike which went under Sully.

Things began to pick up when the nice steward moved us to the main stand and a degree of cover, however the football didn't pick up. Davis was busy, Bunjy looked cool striding out of defence and Les put himself about a bit. No real close chances but we did all wince when Dazzer got clattered .

Interesting to see both Colin Calderwood and Razor Ruddock in the  directors box!

Glenn changed the whole team in the second half (apart from Sully) and  we  equalised early on, Iversen clipping over the keeper from close range. Poyet immediately looked class with clever flicks and touches and should have equalised with a free header. Despite many chances we left it late with the young lad Yannick scoring with a strong run from an Iversen through ball.

The whole thing ended in farce as Piercy, playing right back, ran through late on to add a third and Poyet ending up on the deck when he got into a scrap with some ginger haired centre back. All in all a good laugh and a few of the lads made it worth while by signing programmes at the end.

Super Tottenham from the Lane.

Iain the big one