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A good string of matches for Tottenham
can sometimes be a fragile thing, especially when you face a team that
you know that you should beat, but SCBC proved to be one of the
poorest sides to visit the Lane in a long time and Harry Redknapp will
need to rebuild his side's confidence after Spurs inflicted a big win
over his Saints team.
The match was only a couple of minutes
old when Defoe broke down the right and pulled the ball back across
the six yard box, but Niemi was the only person there. The next
attack bore fruit. In the eighth minute, Michael Carrick tidied
up al loose ball in defence and played it up the right touchline in
the direction of Kanoute. Fredi had two SCBC players for company
and one - Higginbotham - tried to hook the ball out and missed, while
the other - Kenton - missed his header, leaving the striker with a
clean run down to the touchline. Having got there, Fredi held
his composure and pulled the ball back to the penalty spot, where
Defoe had lost his marker and slammed the ball past the keeper to give
Spurs their first goal within the first half hour of a match this
season. It was a well constructed goal and showed the football
that they have been playing under Jol can pay off. With
Defoe almost repeating his first cross, Kenton intercepted it just
before it reached Ricketts, before the Saints had their first real
attack. Phillips shaped to shoot, but a Gardner interception
took the ball over the top and from the resulting corner, Crouch
headed on, but over Phillips' head ad the chance was gone. Spurs
continued to pass the ball well and Thimothee Atouba was entertaining
the Spurs crowd with his show-boating skills. Carrick toe-poked
an effort straight at the goalie in the 19th minute, while Fredi fed
Defoe, who turned his man in the box and hit a low shot that Niemi got
down to hold very well. But Jermain was not to be denied for
long. In the 26th minute, a tackle by Telfer on Kanoute took the
ball back towards the left side of his own penalty area, where the
predator Defoe seized on it and slipped it past the keeper with the
outside of his right foot to arrow the ball low just inside the right
hand post. Not even half an hour
passed and Spurs 2-0 up !! Whatever next ?? Well shots
flew in from Ricketts (too high), Kanoute (spectacularly saved by a
flying Finn) and Defoe (not enough power to beat the keeper), while
King nodded a corner over and Pamarot put an Atouba cross in the same
place, but should really have done better by getting it on target, as
it would have gone in if he had done that. Phillips took a
Saints free-kick, but it was easy for Robbo in goal and Telfer pushed
on through the middle and hit a low shot from 25 yards, but it slid
wide of the goal. On 41 minutes,
Spurs were denied a great opportunity, when Kanoute was played through
by Carrick and Lundekvam pulled his shirt to bring him down, when
Fredi might have been away. It was cynical and designed to
prevent him getting in on goal, but the ref only issued a yellow
card. For Fredi the real punishment came four minutes later,
when another Carrick through ball saw him control it well on the edge
of the area, take it in and as Niemi flopped to the ground, put the
ball past him at his near post. Spurs had one nervy moment just
before the break, when Prutton put in a low pass to Crouch at the near
post and he turned it goalwards, only to find Paul Robinson sharp
enough to get down and get a hand to it to turn it aside. With
the score at 3-0 at the interval, we all waited for the rout to take
place when the match restarted. With everyone saying
"Remember Man. City" and the away fans singing "We're
going to win 4-3", things did get a little worrying when we were
unable to maintain our good defensive record beyond two minutes of the
second period. Prutton made another surge into our box, hit a
low pass across goal, where Ledley skied his clearance, but it fell
perfectly for Crouch to head past a hesitant Robinson and past Atouba
on the line. It was a bad time to concede and a bad goal to
concede. The rout never really got going in the second half
though. Prutton had been lucky to
escape a booking in the first half, with two bad challenges, but got
his caution for a late tackle on Defoe in the 51st minute.
Shortly after that, Brown hit a weak low volley straight at Niemi and
Lundekvam, having a bit of a mare inadvertently set up Tottenham's
fourth goal. He put a clearance right up in the air in his area,
but as it fell to Michael Brown on the edge of the area, he hit s
fierce low shot that Niemi did well to keep out. Unfortunately
for him, it dropped to Jermain, who gratefully accepted his early
Christmas present and slammed past him to wrap up his first hat-trick
in Spurs colours. The showboating
really began now, with Kanoute running through his repertoire of
tricks, Mendes coming on to do the "look one way, pass the
other" speciality and Atouba kept on mugging up his
opponents. Both Defoe and Kanoute broke in the left hand
channel, firing shots narrowly wide, with Fredi doing well to set up
Mendes, but he pulled his left foot shot wide. In the 88th
minute, the final goal of the game came when Defoe scooped the ball
over the SCBC defence for Robbie Keane to run onto and prod a volley
under Niemi and in for a neat little goal. Keano was very
appreciative of the part Jermain played in the strike. Spurs
only suffered a couple of threats on their goal. One came from
another sliced clearance, which Robinson dealt with by coming for and
knocking everyone in front of him out of the way and the other was
when Phillips broke on the right and hit a low shot that the Spurs
keeper did well to dive low to save and hold. The
Saints were never really in it. They looked like a side who did
not believe in themselves and the early goal shattered them. Few
of the players did themselves justice and for Tottenham the complete
opposite was true. Confidence brimmed after the good winning
run, with any of about six players who could have been man of the
match had Defoe not scored his treble. And with some winnable
matches coming up, you hope that Martin Jol will keep them on the
right track to maintain their surge up the table. 7th after
today, maybe a good season will be ensured as the squad is bolstered
by some January signings ??
MEHSTG TOP MAN : - JERMAIN DEFOE
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