| Match report
Tottenham ended up winning this
game and if you listened to Steve Bruce, you would have thought his
player shad been robbed at knife-point, but the sending off of
Gaston Ramirez did sway the game in Tottenham's favour, although we
are often not very good against 10, but we seem to be getting better
after the come-back win over Aston Villa on our last away trip.
A number of changes, some of
which were enforced and some which were not, saw both sides going
out to right recent wrongs. Spurs had a bench with an
unfamiliar look ... no Adebayor or Kaboul, missing for back injury
and personal reasons, while youngsters Dominic Ball and Cristian
Ceballos took their place among the subs.
With Spurs kicking off, we hoped for a bit of pace about their
start, but it was as slow as ever. Dembele played an early
careless pass that put Dier in a position where he had to make a
tackle in our own last third and that is what Spurs needed to cut
out. At the other end, Kane got in behind Dawson to pull the ball
back, but nobody was on hand to get the ball. Spurs got an early
sighter on goal, when Soldado hit a 22 yarder low to McGregor’s left
but the keeper got down behind the ball.
Then, with Hull’s first shot on goal, they scored. Seven minutes in
Jake Livermore picked up a headed clearance, the former Spurs
midfielder hit a low right foot shot that flew past Lloris from 20
yards out. Davies didn’t close him down quick enough and Spurs were
up against it straight away. Only Spurs can do the things no other
sides can. Five hours plus since Hull scored and Tottenham let them
have one !!
Hull allowed Spurs plenty of possession, but dropped lots of men
behind the ball to only allow risky balls forward as the option to
get behind them. It was tough to find a way through and Kane’s half
chance shot from the corner of the box was the best chance for a
while and even then it barely tested McGregor. High balls forward
only found the heads of Curtis Davies and Dawson, so something more
inventive was needed and with Hull working hard to press the space
Tottenham wanted to play in, this looked difficult.
Hugo Lloris came for a long Hud free-kick and messed it up, leading
to a scramble around the penalty spot, which Spurs managed to block
out for a corner. In the 20th minute, in Hull’s next attack, Lloris
amended for his error and made a fine save when Brady hit a low shot
when he met a pull back and no Spurs midfielder went with him. As
the ball came back in, Lloris was forced back into action making a
low save from Gaston Ramirez, but he only managed to push the ball
back out into the middle of the goal and Hatem Ben Arfa ran in to
hit a shot that should have found the net, but he missed the target.
Spurs were looking raged at the back, which was no real surprise, as
they have for a while now, but the passing was loose and they needed
not to give the ball away when Hull were closing down so
efficiently. There was an instance where Livermore fouled Kane, 30
yards from goal and Spurs had three players standing over the ball.
What’s that all about ?
From the next one, at least it was left to Eriksen, out wide on the
left, but his kick failed to find it’s way into the box, eventually
ending with Mason’s shot from 25 yards out being blocked. Eriksen
then had a shot from the edge of the box blocked for a corner, from
which he found Soldado at the edge of the box, but the Spaniard was
too far ahead of the near post, he couldn’t get it near the goal. We
were getting dead ball situations, with Huddlestone bringing down
Lamela, but as has been the case over recent times, we failed to
make much of them. This one saw Kane take the ball and he was always
going to hit a shot at goal, but he only hit the wall. When the ball
went back to Lloris, Spurs tried to play the ball out from the back,
but three times, Spurs players got caught with short passes.
Dier got a booking for diving into a tackle on Brady, but just
before Hud had got away with his fourth foul, whereas this was
Eric’s first. Another referee who does not understand consistency.
Eriksen almost played a ball to his left as he was running right,
but Elmohamady just got a touch to take it away from Kane. It seemed
like there was little urgency when they had the ball, but Eriksen
laid the ball into Lamela’s path and his shot from the left of the
box forced the keeper into a save in the 38th minute. Little was
going Tottenham’s way, with the ball bouncing off white shirted
players for goal-kicks, but then you have to work hard when luck’s
not with you. Davies was trying to get forward and when Soldado’s
back-heel put him down the left, his cross got blocked, but at least
it was showing some movement to pull Hull around.
Fazio was having a bit of a mare, jumping for aerial balls and
getting underneath them, then giving the ball away 25 yards away
from our own goal. At the other end, Spurs were finding space wide,
but were failing to find a ball into the box that was going to hurt
the home side. Just before half-time a Spurs move ended with Eriksen
fizzing a low driven ball across the face of goal in the six yard
box, but nobody gambled on it and it went off on the other side of
the pitch.
Half time came with Spurs having had few opportunities and Hull
missing at least two other good chances to have extended their lead.
Would a second half performance by Spurs make them regret their
profligacy ?
Well, bringing on Chirches for Dier seemed a strange decision, as he
will want to play the ball out and in the first minute, that almost
cost Tottenham. Hoeevr, the next time he took the ball, he beat his
man and Spurs brought the ball forward with a bit on intent and got
a corner. As usual, it came to nothing and when Eriksen ran it back
at their back four, he was blocked as he shaped to shoot. While
Spurs were playing a more attacking style, the ref was allowing a
lot to go unpunished. He even didn’t see what went on when Ramirez
kicked out at Vertonghen, with the linesman seeing it and advising
it should be worth a red card five minutes into the half.
Lamela’s long cross from the right picked out Davies and his header
back in front of goal was kicked away by Dawson. From the corner,
the ball was worked wide to Fazio, who shot into the side-netting.
Hull were losing their discipline and Soldado was hacked down giving
Tottenham a free-kick, but it failed to create anything, so it was
from open play that they had to try and create shots on goal.
Suddenly, Spurs looked a bit more determined, with Mason’s curled
ball in from the left just too far ahead of Soldado, who couldn’t
stretch to get the ball on the laces of his boot. Aaron Lennon came
on for Dembele, in an attempt to speed things up a bit. Davies went
through the back of Soldado, but no yellow card for him, despite a
foul from behind being a caution under the current interpretation.
Eriksen took responsibility this time, with the ball placed
centrally 20 yards out. His effort beat the keeper, but crashed back
off the post, rebounding straight out for Harry Kane to put it
straight back past McGregor to equalise in the 61st minute.
Huddlestone was lucky to get away with another offence when he threw
the ball away when a free-kick went against him, but he was booked
for his next foul, kicking Mason on the hip. He joined Livermore in
the book for dissent after Tottenham’s goal. It gave another
free-kick, which they worked well to allow Eriksen to dink a ball
right to the far post, but Vertonghen tried an overhead kick when
Lennon was coming in behind him. When Ben Arfa went off for
David Meyler to enter the game, I was relieved, as the man on loan
from Newcastle often is a thorn in our side. With Meyler just
returning from injury, it was a bonus, as Bruce helped Spurs, as the
Irish midfielder was awful. He didn't hold the ball, wasn't
aware of players around him and seemed unable to understand where he
should be.
Huddlestone left the action, with the risk that he might get sent
off too, with Rosenior replacing him to protect the right side of
the Hull defence. Spurs were now working harder and making the most
of their extra man. Chiriches was released on the right and his low
ball in was guided just wide of the far post by Roberto from 10
yards out. With 67 minutes gone, Harry Kane should have gone ahead
when Lennon’s right wing cross picked him out, but he put his header
inches die, when he should have hit the target and it would have
been a goal.
Chiriches low ball into the box fell behind Spurs men coming in, but
Mason fired in a drive that McGregor beat out. Finding this way of
playing making life difficult for Hull, you wonder why the team
doesn’t play with this tempo all the time ? The ever knowledgeable
Hull crowd were appealing for everything. Not knowing a hand from a
chest, but they felt aggrieved by the sending off, although they
perhaps should have aimed their ire at Ramirez, who didn’t have to
kick out in the first place.
Davies’ run left created space for Lamela coming inside, firing a
shot just over the angle of crossbar and post with 71 minutes on the
clock, but sloppy passing was giving the Tigers the ball further up
the field and Spurs had to be careful. Hull threw people forward for
a free-kick with 15 minutes left, with Lloris getting caught under
Curtis Davies and dropping the ball again, before falling on top of
it. Lamela made a weak attempt to hold up Brady, but his ball to
Elmohamady set him into space and the ball in to Jelavic was luckily
behind him from Spurs’ point of view.
A bit of cramp meant Soldado was replaced by Paulinho with just over
ten minutes remaining, but when moves broke down, Hull were still
supporting Jelavic up front. Livermore got away with a late
challenge on Mason, which would have meant another Hull man sent
off, but the referee was having such a bad day, he wouldn’t
recognise a bad tackle if he saw one.
Mason couldn’t continue at full throttle, so effectively, it was 10
v 10 for the last ten minutes. Hull were also targeting him, with
Meyler going in late on the Spurs midfielder. Good use was being
made of the space available and Chirches was attacking down the
right, but his crosses were low into the box, but didn’t always find
their man.
Spurs were playing the ball around, with Hull sitting back to soak
up the pressure, but Kane’s run across the box saw him leave the
ball for Lennon. Aaron touched it on for Christian Eriksen and he
hit a right foot shot low across McGregor and it found the bottom
corner of the net to put Tottenham ahead for the first time in the
match. It was similar to Hull’s opening goal, with nobody closing
the Dane down, but it was a well placed shot to beat the goalie and
give Spurs a 2-1 lead with minutes remaining.
I don’t like to see Spurs keep the ball in the corner, but that is
what they did for a good two minutes, which ran down the clock
enough to see an away win against a side with a man sent off for the
second away match running. The missed chances in the first half by
Hull did cost them, but more than that the man who got sent off
should be answering to his manager and team-mates.
It changed the nature of the game, but credit must go to Pochettino
for what changes he did make to take the game to Hull more. Perhaps
he will see that a more attacking approach is the way forward, with
the benefit of Tottenham’s set-up being better realised from a lead
rather than chasing the game. Had Ramirez not been sent off, I don’t
think we would have had three points to take back to London.
However, we have been hard done by in the past and had to get on
with it, so now it is someone else's turn.
The victory puts us two
points off fourth place and level on points with Everton and
Arsenal, while we sit three above Liverpool. Crisis ?
What crisis ?
That will come when we
return to White Hart Lane and people think we will roll over Everton
next Sunday. I hope it happens, but let's be patient if it
doesn't.
Michael Griffiths
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