EYEWITNESS: Dan Carrier's view on Tottenham Hotspur 3 Blackburn Rovers 1
FA Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur 3 Blackburn Rovers
EYEWITNESS report from WHITE HART LANE
By DAN CARRIER
The playwright Henry Miller once wrote that ’…in every man’s heart is anchored a little schooner.’ His words illustrated his belief that there is a sense of adventure endemic in us all.
It is the little schooner at the heart of our mighty oak of a centre back Michael Dawson that inspired today.
His pin-point passing is all too often overlooked when his qualities are listed. Without Tom Huddlestone spraying the ball about, our captain provided an unlikely attacking platform, with his calmness giving him that extra few moments to pick out a team mate in an attacking position.
And now, as the season approaches it’s climax, there are still other issues apart from the cup and the fourth spot to consider: who at the club will boast a World Cup experience come the start of the next season?
It seems likely Defoe and Crouch will make it - but remarkably little has been said of Daws’s incredible consistency this term. As a press box friend pointed out before the game today, he has been brilliant each and every game. He started off as Harry’s fourth choice, behind Ledley, Woody and the new boy Bassong: now he is number one, and team captain. And the stats speak for themselves. Before Daws was drafted in, we conceded goals galore - our three heavy defeats to Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all came without him.
With Daws marshalling things at the back, we’ve kept 14 clean sheets - a remarkable testimony to his input. To think he is behind Shawcross, Lescott and Upson in the England thinking is incredible - he is much better than all three - and in terms of form, which Cappello makes a right song and dance about, he is enjoying a more comfortable season than John Terry, while Rio Ferdinand hasn’t made it double figures for league appearances yet. And his attributes are not just muck and nettles: on nine minutes, he pinged a beautifully weighted ball from the centre back position 50 yards distant to the left flank for Bale to run on to.
He did it again five minutes later, then got a lovely block in on Olsson as he threatened to get a goal bound shot off. In a first half of few real chances, a galloping run by Bale, played in by Dawson, saw Pav connect well but his close range drive was inches wide. Then Defoe forced rookie keeper Brown into a sprawling stop on 32, but otherwise the story of the first 45 that the final cross was not probing enough to stretch Rovers defence. The breakthrough came as the fourth official showed the players had an extra two minutes of the first period remaining. A corner was forced by Kranjcar’s persistence. The in swinger was nodded on by Corluka and Defoe, all of a yard out, was the first to react. He prodded his 90th Spurs goal home, prompting the question whether with 10 league games left he can reach his ton.
At the start of the second, Daws again showed his class: he pinched the ball off Kalinic’s instep as the forward shaped to shoot from close range. The interception gave his team mates possession, and led to Pav making it two when his powerful shot squirmed beneath Brown in the Rovers goal. Then came the icing. With 85 gone, Pav snuck in at the back to nail Bale’s cross, making it eight goals in six games, and putting a little gap between Spurs in fourth and Manchester City in fifth. And if you had to say one man drove the team into such a position today, you’d have to say it was the effort of Dawson.
Hero: Michael Dawson. Simply brilliant all round.
Villain: Howard Webb. We had two good penalty shouts, Rovers had one, Webb gave none. And their goal was only scored because Daws was treated like a step ladder by Samba.
Move of the match: Daws played a number of great balls from deep to Bale on the left. Glenn Hoddle drooled over his passing during the half time interval - praise indeed from a man who knows what it takes to spread the ball about at the Lane.