EYEWITNESS: Dan Carrier's view on Tottenham Hotspur 3 Fulham 1
FA CUP: TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 3 FULHAM 1
EYEWITNESS report from DAN CARRIER
at WHITE HART LANE
THERE came a moment at half time when David Bentley and Tom Huddlestone were told by Harry Redknapp to lace up their boots. That private dressing room command has turned me from admiring Harry, but not 100 per cent loving him, into lying prostrate at his feet and praising him like a football deity.
Hud and Bentley have been missing for three weeks following ankle knocks and groin strains, but with Spurs a goal down to a competent Fulham side and the trap door wide open beneath an FA Cup challenge, the pair were going to have to play through pain and drag their team mates into the next round.
It was this moment that Harry made a gamble, and one that finally, in my mind, put paid to any lingering grief I have been harbouring for my dearly beloved Martin Jol.
I know the genial Dutchman has been gone for nearly three years, but I realised last night that since his dramatic departure I have been in mourning, still cherishing memories of his attractive team and his witty post-match analysis.
But he'd never, ever have dared to do what Harry did, and that was identify the problems on the pitch in the first half, and then radically alter the shape of the side to turn the match on its head.
Jol was never one for touchline changes. It became perhaps the only bone of contention with fans who loved him. The starting 11 would be the ending 11, no matter how things were progressing, and if he did bring on substitutions, you'd never quite understand why. An example: 3-1 up against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the cup. 20 minutes to go. He tales off Azza Lennon and Dimitar Berbatov, the two who have given Chavski the right run around. The west London scrap metal merchant millionaires claw their way back into it, and then thump us in the replay, and it was all because Jol made a terrible subbing error.
Harry, on the other hand, loves a tinker, and has confidence in his players that if they are asked to do a job that isn't described as their fortes on their business cards, they'll still give him a shift (Palacios as a fullback tonight is a case in point). Harry got the Hud and Bentley on, and they quickly turned the match on its head.
And the cauldron of glee at the Lane tonight was cranked up a notch collectively by the news that Manchester City lost and Aston Villa could only draw: that means all we need to do is win our remaining league games and we're in the Champions League. And that is why finally I can put my love for Martin Jol in a shoe box under the bed, and give my undivided attention to wily old Harry Hotspur.