Tottenham 0 West Ham Utd 0 (19/03/11)

[Romford]

You're bonkers mate

[Richard WHUFC]

When playing a decent team, most sides go with the more tried and tested way of letting a team come forward to a certain point before pressing with not a massive gap between the defence and midfield, to push the midfield too far up the pitch against a team like Spurs would be suicidal in my opinion with players like Modric and Bale getting in behind, I thought the tactics were spot on yesterday.

[Turns to Stone]

Exactly, Chuck.

For all the possession and time on the ball that Spurs had how much did they really look like scoring. Defoe missed one sitter (great Green save) and there were a few Spurs long shots from 20 yards plus. Green's save from Bale was a great save, but again, it was from 20 yards out. Arguably, we created the best chance of the game that Cole missed.

Teams like Spurs, Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal are always going to create chances and have more possession than lower placed teams. The challenge is to stop them scoring and try and hit them on the break. We did the first part of that brilliantly yesterday and had it not been for a couple of missed chances by Cole, an overhead kick a foot further left from Noble, and a decent save by Gomes from Ba and we may have even got more from that.

There seems to be a lot of people that are 'worried' about Grant's abilities to get the best out of us in the early part of the season, and therefore there praise for his ability to get performances out of us now is tempered. But let's be honest, since the end of January, we've been one of the best 6 - 8 clubs in the country. If Mark Hughes had been doing that with Fulham or Houllier with Everton, we'd all be saying what a fantastic manager they were.

Great performance from the lad yesterday, and the only frustration from me is that we didn't have two proper full-backs and Hitz for the first 6 months of the season, I'm very confident we'd be in the top half of the table if we had.

[Romford]

I think the main success was to make VDV drop (like in the game at the Boleyn) leaving Defoe isolated.

You had to love his t shirt underneath...sums the fella up !!!

[carnage]

We did well. Spurs dominated the game, but I didn't see many clear cut chances for Spurs. Lots of shots mind.

[Romford]

We did well. Sp*rs dominated the game, but I didn't see many clear cut chances for Sp*rs. Lots of shots mind.

Green made to great 2 saves...

[carnage]

Green made to great 2 saves...

Yeah he did. 1 was a chance for Defoe the other the free kick. Everything else was regulation IMO and from distance. It was nothing like the 1 nil the Effluent in the "Tevez season", that was more my point.

[hawkins_hammer]

I do agree with many of the comments here, but I think Cole holds it up better than Ba so we should have taken Ba off for Obinna instead. Once Cole was taken off for the last ten minutes the ball just kept coming back and we didn't create any more chances. I still think Cole is our most important striker, but at the same time I dislike wasting Ba at left-mid.

[irving boleyn]

But when does the "holding up" have an end product, other than allowing both defences to re group?

Shouldnt the consequence be a through ball to an overlapping midfielder? How rarely do we see that from him...frequently an instant lay off would appear a better option but he doesnt seem to have the vision...

[westlondonhammer]

It was the first time I saw Sandro yesterday... wasn't sure what all the fuss was about before... but he was a beast and I was really impressed. At 22 he has a big career ahead of him and I doubt he will be there long term.

Given the squad they have, I am actually starting to hope that Redknapp is offered the England job... if not just to weaken them.

[MarshyWHU]

You had to love his t shirt underneath...sums the fella up !!!

Apparently his grandad died a day or two earlier and wouldn't wish that upon anyone. But then instead of wearing a t-shirt or something to celebrate the life of his grandfather, he wears a top purely to gloat that he's scored 100 goals. Sums him up perfectly, can never be about anyone but him.

Loved all the Tottenham fans booing when 'Jermaine Defoe, he's a ****' got stupidly loud

[Richard WHUFC]

Carlton is a good lad but one thing that does annoy me, is the amount of times, when he doesn't get a free-kick, he takes a while sitting on the floor before getting back up - he should be up on his feet pressuring the ball.

[irving boleyn]

I think they responded with "Germain Defoe..he's a Y*d"

[hawkins_hammer]

But when does the "holding up" have an end product, other than allowing both defences to re group?

Shouldnt the consequence be a through ball to an overlapping midfielder? How rarely do we see that from him...frequently an instant lay off would appear a better option but he doesnt seem to have the vision...

The turn and shot at the start of the second half and the pass to Noble when he wasted that huge chance both showed poise and vision. My point is when he came off Ba couldn't do the same job. Ba is the better shooter no question, but he couldn't win those 50-50 headers when the ball came upfield like Cole does so well. He imposes himself on the defender like no other striker at the club can do, Picky can sometimes.

I think it's clear that Cole needs Ba and Ba needs Cole, just need to see them play up top together.

[Faubert's Boot]

For all the possession and time on the ball that Sp*rs had how much did they really look like scoring. Defoe missed one sitter (great Green save) and there were a few Sp*rs long shots from 20 yards plus. Green's save from Bale was a great save, but again, it was from 20 yards out. Arguably, we created the best chance of the game that Cole missed.

You missed out the Defoe open goal miss. 9 times out of ten he would have scored that

[Chuck D]

I think the main success was to make VDV drop (like in the game at the Boleyn) leaving Defoe isolated.

You had to love his t shirt underneath...sums the fella up !!!

Correct, the trade off was that Modric got the time on the ball much deeper, but he wasnt able to pick out passes with 9 men in front of him.

Carlton held the ball up well, and tried to bring others into play, sometimes he frustrates, but he did more right than wrong yesterday for me.

[17 years of hurt]

Great day out, top performance and top atmosphere from our lot.

A combination of Solid defending and a little bit of luck saw us come away with a very welcomed point. On another day we may even have nicked a win.

Thought once Carlton went off we lost a bit of presence up front and the ball was coming back into our half far to quickly and as a result we were hanging on a bit at the end. For those of you slagging him off, he did a fantastic job holding the ball up yesterday. Yes, he mad a couple of poor decisions in possesion yesterday but we were a much better side when he was on the pitch. Obinna barely got a kick when he came on.

Brilliant walking back to northumberland park hearing all the spuds whinging.

[prophet:marginal]

Brilliant walking back to northumberland park hearing all the spuds whinging.

I met family in their home pub round the corner from the away stand, it was even better in there.

In fact, in fairness to them, quite a few gave us credit for the spirit in our performance. They were mad at Defoe, but perhaps with good reason.

[Bobby Orangeboom]

Harrys had a couple of years, a great starting squad, and a good few bob to spend to get them where they are. We did well yesterday against a much better team.

.

600% more than us NET over the past 4 Season to be precise, & they had 46m worth of Footballer in the Bench yesterday, excluding whoever their Keeper was..

We did very well given that, yes..

[irving boleyn]

I was at the Spurs end yesterday and the mutterings against Defoe and the calling for Crouch reached a crescendo towards the end of the second half.....my Spurs mate said they are usually howling for Crouch to be taken off!

We are all the same!!!!!