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The
tone for this relegation battle
was set in the first two minutes
when Albion players caught Luka
Modric and Darren Bent late and
the referee failed to take any
action. In fact, it was
more the ref setting the tone
for his won performance, as if I
was to say that he was
inconsistent, I would be making
a major understatement, as his
decisions helped ensure
Tottenham slipped to another
defeat. With only one goal
for four games now, Albion took
a late lead and as Spurs threw
everything forward to try and
get an equaliser, a breakaway
sealed the match for the home
team.
With no Pavlyuchenko on the
bench, it left Spurs even
lighter in attacking options,
with Jonathan Obika being
included among the subs.
With so many players having been
used in many of the matches
lately, it is perhaps surprising
that some of the squad players
were not started. As it
was, the team looked tired and
with Bent still getting over his
bout of tonsillitis, it looked
like we were the least likely
side to score.
Morrison hit a shot across goal
after Cech had taken the ball
on, then Moore had a run on
goal, Dawson felled him and got
a yellow card for the foul.
This left WBA with a free-kick
just outside the box and Valero
run up to strike it and Gomes
had to dive to his left to push
the ball out as it looked to be
going into the bottom corner.
It took until the 22nd minute
for Spurs to seriously threaten
the Albion goal and Bent struck
Bentley's pass wide of Carson,
but the keeper managed to
stretch out an arm to collect
the ball.
Morrison picked up the first
caution for the home side, with
a foul on Lennon, which should
have been followed by a red for
Olsson, who scythed Bent's legs
away from him in a vicious
manner, but the referee gave
Tottenham a throw-in, which it
wasn't anyway. More
refereeing senselessness arrived
just a couple of minutes later,
when Benoit Assou-Ekotto was
shown a straight red card for a
stamp on Zuiverloon, where
similar challenges by Adebayour
and Arca were given yellows last
weekend. I must admit, the
level of refereeing below the
top echelons (and even they can
be prone to erratic decisions)
is really poor. While it
is down to the players to make
sure that they don't give
referees the opportunity to come
up with such ludicrous awards,
there must be some form of
review of a performance, which
can never get lost points back,
but might remove a maverick
official from the roster.
With a defender gone, the game
would be all about hanging on to
go home with something from the
game. That is not
something we can usually do,
even when leading, so it was
going to be a long 55 minutes.
However, the final action of the
half saw Olsson flick a header
straight at Gomes and then
Bentley broke at the other end,
but could only hit Lennon's
cross well wide. Spurs
must really start making the
most of their chances, as goals
are becoming hard to come by.
Brunt picked up Albion's second
yellow before the interval and
after the break Zuiverloon
picked up another. But
straight after the break
Tottenham should have had a
penalty, with Olsson climbing
all over Bent and having a
handful of his shirt, but
perhaps with this man in black
it was nothing like as clear cut
as a sending off for Spurs.
When the ball flew up the other
end, Gomes had to be on his toes
to rise up to push Brunt's
free-kick over the top and then
caught Zuiverloon's curling
effort with a good diving save.
When Spurs did get a chance
following Zuiverloon's booking,
Bentley chose to shoot at goal,
rather than whip in a free-kick
to the heads of the defenders
who had moved into the West
Bromwich penalty box.
While Lennon was frustrated by
the lack of service, as he had
two defenders on yellow cards
and wanted to run at them,
Bentley continued to be wasteful
with possession, so O'Hara came
on for him with about 20 minutes
left.
Albion were pressing forward as
the tired Spurs ten men tired
even more. Dorrans strode
forward and struck Dawson with a
shot that flew up and forced
Gomes into a save to tip the
ball over the bar and then when
Cech's cross, Bednar was free at
the back post and had a free
header past the Tottenham goalie
- mainly because the Spurs
centre-half had been shoved in
the back, throwing him forward
out of Bednar's way to score.
Harry was getting desperate and
threw Campbell on up front for
Zokora, who had been playing in
defence, but it failed to
produce much of a threat to the
WBA goal. Bednar curled a
long range effort wide before
hitting a free-kick that flicked
off the wall and caused Gomes to
produce another good save to
keep out.
As Tottenham went forward in
numbers, Gareth Bale lobbed a
towering ball into the home
penalty area and as it came
down, O'Hara was under it to
volley at goal, but the shot had
all the sting taken out of it by
Greening's block and Carson had
a simple task to collect the
ball. It was Tottenham's
last chance and seconds later
the game was over. Not
through the final whistle being
blown, but Albion raced down the
other end and with Cech and
Morrison linking well, a short
pass into the area gave Craig
Beattie the easiest of goals as
he slid the ball in from close
range.
While there were mitigating
circumstances for this defeat,
Tottenham cannot afford to keep
losing games like this. 20
games gone and 20 points on the
board. A second half to
the season might be enough to
survive, but I am not sure that
many more performances like this
will make the fans tolerance
stretch very far.
Redknapp needs to do something
with the squad he has got
without thinking about who he
wants to bring in. If we
need a forward, then someone has
to stump up the money for one,
otherwise, we will be looking at
a different class of player in
white shirts next season.
EAST
STAN |
West
Bromwich Albion (Away)
)
