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FA PREMIER LEAGUE: TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 BLACKPOOL 1

 

EYEWITNESS report from WHITE HART LANE

 

By DAN CARRIER

 

Today, in this season where there's not much left to do but throw the kitchen sink at any 11 standing in front us and pray it rains banana skins in Manchester, you'd think Harry would play the dashing winger from the off.

 

You'd imagine he'd draw on the dressing room blackboard stick men passing the ball centrally out to the space behind the left back for the little sprinter to zoom after. But when the team sheet is pinned up, there's no Lennon on it, and he isn't injured (he is on the bench).

 

Now perhaps Harry felt he needed a rest, but the conspiracy theorists may read more into his demotion in this, such a vital league game.

 

There have been rumours swirling that he was not cutting a popular figure in the dressing room, and that Harry was fed up with his attitude. Press reports last week suggested he could be touted about in the summer for a £15m move.

 

There have regular fan grumbles, which are that he isn't developing, that he had failed singularly to get at and round his fullbacks, that his crossing wasn't up to much, that he didn't score enough goals... And while sometimes these criticims seem justified, I find any talk of selling him horrifying: I think he could have done more this term, but show me a player that you can't say you wished they'd brought a little something extra to the table. Even he who walks on water, Sir Luka Modric, could have bagged a few more goals. In any season of this length, it is obvious players have will have dips and troughs. Lennon's contributions have often been game changing (that run and cross against AC MIlan?) and while against Chelsea last week I was hoping he'd be subbed as I felt he was anonymous for much of it and seemingly afraid to press onto the last man and try him for pace, I don't want Lennon to be one of the many who will pack their bags this summer for other pastures. 

 

No Lennon, then, but Defoe was paired with Pav in a classic 4-4-2, and as the news of Everton's unlikely come back filtered thorugh the pub gardens, suddenly there was a tiny little glimmer.

 

Now it would be up to Spurs today to make this glimmer turn into a crack by steamrollering Blackpool out of the way, and set themselves up nicely to beat Champions League rivals Manchester City on Tuesday. Harry's rolling of the formation dice again in the quest to find goals from the frontmen that have been so sorely lacking all season was a statement that he realises now is the time to try something differetn after the spell of draws that has meant we're not going to be in the Champions League next term, and a shift from the formation that we'd used all season.

 

Blackpool, too, were desperate points, for obviously different reasons: their's has been a spectacular Spring collapse, with a barren 10 game run that brought three points from a possible 30. Relegation form indeed.

 

The first half was fairly relentless. Spurs painted the patterns and pictures and some brave defending saw stingers from both Pav and Defoe blocked by orange clad torsos, while Bale and van der Vaart had shots saved by 'Pool keeper Matthew Gilks.

 

Sandro carried on from where he left off against Chelsea, providing a wall for Blackpool's attacks to break against, and using the ball so intelligently when it had been won that it would very much seem the injured Wilson Palacios won't get back into the side on merit alone. His efforts and application was first class: we have a new hero.  Yet despite the possession and the crosses into the danger areas, the breakthrough was not forthcoming, and all the huffing and puffing and hanging on to the ball had nothing tangible against the tangerines to show for it.

 

Harry's experiment of a life post-Lennon lasted all of 45 minutes, and the winger was given the chance to prove all doubters wrong when  Pav was sacrificed. Immediately he set the ground alight with a speedy run, beating two men and an inch perfect cross for van der Vaart, who should have done better. Moments later the Dutchman was played in by a hip twister of a run by Modric, and then Bale fired an effort wide, Defoe sent an over head effort high and still there was no way to break the deadlock.

 

Lennon gave us more width and suddenly it seemed like we had an extra man when it was needed, but still there was the tendency to try and walk the ball into the net.  

 

But as we have seen so often this term, we had loads of the ball but getting it over the line was mysteriously not forthcoming, and with this being the last chance saloon more urgency would have been nice.

 

Then, on 73, disaster: a Blackpool corner spun into the box, and Michael Dawson handled it (though it looked like he was shoved in the back). Gomes, typically, pulled off a tremendous save and then lost his marbles as Spurs defended a corner. The keeper, for a reason I can't fathom, chased the ball to the edge of the box like an over excited puppy and bundled over a Pool forward. Another penalty and this time there would be no mistake.

 

Just as it seemed things were all over Defoe was given a moment of space on the edge of the box by Modric's trickery and his emphatic drive into the bottom left hand corner just showed what we had been missing.  The fourth official showed six minutes added time and suddenly it was game on again. They piled forward uncouthly, in an undignifed pickle as the Harry, Joe Jordan and Kevin Bond urged everyone forward. It was hit Crouch and hope for a knock down, a tactic that created one last great chance for Defoe, who skimmed his shot instead of connecting cleanly.

 

There are no silver linings to this season-finishing result. Blackpool were two minutes from doing the double over us and that shows how inconsistent we have been. This match sums up 2010-2011's league form: an inability to bury teams when we've played well, and dumb individual errors costing us.

 

 

Gomes, 5: Good one handed save in the first half and then pulled off a point blank stop from DJ Campbell on 73. But then we saw Gomes summed up in a terrible two minutes. First he pulls off a great penalty stop, and then in his excitement concedes another, which he can't do anything about. This was clowning of the highest order, and I am still grumpy with him because of last week's boob.

Bale, 6: Got clattered with worrying regularity and then on 62 he got hit in about three directions by a chasing pack of players. He was carried off with his leg in one of those braces, and it looked serious. Sub: Crouch.

Kaboul, 6: Dutifully fulfilled defensive duties, offered not a lot going forward.

Pavlyuchenko, 6: Got stuck in and tried to hold things up for his team mates. But all to often lacked a killer touch and Harry told him to step down for the second period. Sub: Lennon.

van der Vaart, 6: Asked to play all over the place. Still not 100 per cent sure where his position is.

Gallas, 7: Another professional performance.

Modric, 8: One twisty run saw him sell the entire stadium a dummy, with 36,000 people going one way when he was secretly going the other.

Defoe, 6: Started better than he has for some time, linking things as well as keeping his markers busy. Was unlucky to be flagged off side on 36 when he slipped into the box and nailed a shot in.

Dawson, 7: Loved the tackle and shot in the first half.

Rose, 8: Was constantly fouled as Blackpool just couldn't handle his pace. Despite playing as a left back, he got forward at every opportunity and looked like he belongs at this level.   Sub: Kranjcar

Sandro, 8: What an extraordinarily mature performance from the young man. Frigthening to think of good he can become - and puzzling how we will fit  him into the same team as Huddlestone.

 

Subs: Cudicini, Lennon, Jenas, Crouch, Bassong, Kranjcar, Corluka