Blackburn 2 Spurs 1 - How did we manage to lose this one then?
Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 12:38PM Up against the hoofing anti-football of Sam Allardyce, for the sake of all things beautiful, we had to win. Unfortunately, the ugly won.
King (4 games on the trot) and Bent started, unchanged side. Hail consistency! Wasn't a tidy game by any means when we were in possession, but we played in some clever balls, Modric involved as often as possible. Got ourselves into some tasty positions first half. But we remained comfortable. All the way through to the second half and up until the final 20 minutes. Where it all went wrong.
Should have had this wrapped up in the first half. 1-0 up from a Keane penalty. A controversial one at that. Although at a stretch you could argue Givet leaned forward and didn't try to move his arm away. At a stretch. In all honesty, it wasn't a clear cut penalty and the referee struggled with consistency through-out the game (not giving Rovers a pen earlier for a handball by Corluka) - so no surprise when he ignored his assistants lack of flag waving and gave it. Not that I complained much.
There was more hilarity when Keane didn't quite place the whole of the ball on the white pen mark, which is fine, if you look at how most players take corners nowadays - placing the ball right on the edge is legal. One nil half-time. Job half done.
If only.
Second half saw us create more chances, none taken - but nothing overly decisive in the way of a killer killer pass. Nothing anywhere near ruthless. Gomes didn't have anything to do for 65 minutes or so. But the longer it went on, that horrid mist of ominousness began to cloud my confidence that all three points were safe.
Wilson, already on a yellow, got a second and his marching orders for basically pulling out of a tackle. He did not swing his leg, he pulled away to avoid committing the foul. But the ref decided it warranted a yellow and off he went. And you just knew that at 1-0 up and down to 10 men that things would go from bad to worse. It's the curse of mentioning 'Europe' one to many times in the past couple of weeks. That mist was now engulfing all hopes of sitting in that 7th spot, for a couple of hours at the very least.
And so, it went to shit. Rovers, galvanized pushed forward. We switched off and got sloppy. Gomes saved well from Warnock. But then cometh the 82 min, Rovers made it 1-1, and then 2-1 in the 89th.
Shocking stuff. Messy defending. Far too easy for Rovers. Final whistle, Diouf does his detestable best to rub it in. No Match of the Day for me.
I'll keep my final analysis simple.
First half was all good, just no second killer goal. Woody and King great at the back. Bent playing well. Lennon quiet but just doing enough to keep things ticking. Palacios involved, Modric not quite magical but effective. Second half, Lennon quieter. Palacios unlucky. Bent's positioning evaporated like a fleas wet fart in the Sahara desert. Still no second goal. Bad ref decision (to make up for the one that gave us a 1-0 lead). Team structure gets messy. Blackburn only have to get the ball into the box for our defenders to lose concentration where its needed. The End.
Blackburn are shit. Diouf and Allardyce. They make little attempt to play football. They are shit. We were not sharp or bang on form. But still possessed enough quality on the ball to win comfortably. We just didn't really have the application to do so. Disappointing as it is, and ironic that we could have gone 7th - but in the grand scheme of things, its a learning curve and a reminder that we have to be a certain bite to our play whether its against Chelsea or Rovers. The ref didn't help matters, but at the best of times, they don't tend to.
41 points is safety territory. It will have to wait another week.
Mark this one down to a footballing hangover. Learn from it, stuff West Ham next week.
I'll leave you with this gem from Allardyce:
"Doesn't matter how you win as long as you win"
There you have it people. It's not about playing football on the ground, pinging it around to feet, flowing pushing forward with style. It's just about winning. Touch.
Reader Comments (20)
Peter Walton (Blackburn) 10
Lulled Spurs into a false sense of security with the penalty award before wrongly sending off Palacios and failing to send off Ooijer for persistent foul play
The fault was Harry's. Sat on his buns all game, and did nothing to shake things up in the second half, when we were so ineffectual. Was he really thinking of bringing on Pav at the 90th? Must have been trying to run the clock down. Sorry, but the man is, was and always will be a middle of the table type of manager. Bent?! don't get me started.
We need to be cunts. We just don't fucking have it in us sometimes, only when we play a 'top 4' club. We should be brushing these the likes of Rovers aside with easy.
The mentality issue is still there.
Fucking 'ell I feel sick. Hate losing games in this manner. 41 points would have made next weeks game against West Ham a battle for 7th, now we are just playing catch up.
Filthy - to be fair mate, most of our knee-jerking fans had us down for relegation not that long ago. Let's just dick West Ham. And be happy we are not down in the mire at the minute, which is looking messy for a few teams.
Very messy for Newcastle :)
This was Harry's fault today. Sorry but he was happy to hang on and hang on for a one nil, then when he needed to react fast (ie Palacios went) he was too slow. Immediately Palacios was sent off the game was screaming for Lennon (who may be about to start his usual end of season blue streak - veru ineffective today)to be replaced. Instead he waited and waited; they got one goal...and the rest as they say had wall writing all over it. I could go on about ineffective strikers...we had two today, and the unnerving endorsement of Robbie Keane from HR, who now seems to be unsubstitutable!! But the aura around HR has definitely waned for me today. And then bang on and on about a bad ref..he was poor for both sides, and HE did not lose us that game...WE did.
I'm sorry but show respect please! The author is bang on in his analysis (probably neither a penalty nor a red) but some of the comments are not on. Spurs don't have a god-given right to "brush the likes of Rovers aside". We're playing ugly because we're fighting for survival. It was the same when Hughes arrived. I'll add in fairness you deserved the win today...
I'm just very very bitter :)
But to be fair, Big Sam isn't known for playing football on the ground, even when his team sits pretty in the top 10. I'm willing to bet you won't see any difference next season.
True that's probably the reason we went for Ince in the summer. The long ball thing is actually more to do with Tugay than anyone else. Has been that way for years. Without him our midfield is short on quality so: hoof! When he came on we got the ball down a bit more and it paid dividends. What do you lot think about Bentley? I thought Lennon was superb today don't see the need for that cocky **** at your club.
Always thought we bought Bentley because we lost Keane. We have a habit of signing players that fit into the media-PR hype machine. 'Big names' to excite the fans. Whether they thought Lennon wasn't up to it, or if Comolli talked Ramos into it (who knows)- it begs the question why do need another right-winger who can't play anywhere else?
I like the lad. He obviously does have talent, but whatever the reason, its not worked out and Harry appears to have tried to get him to just play football without the Beckham syndrome superstar touches, but it hasn't worked.
I dont want him to be sold. He should prove himself come next season. If he is a Spurs fan, he should show us something on the pitch, consistently.
The problem is - he won't be getting into the side ahead of Lennon.
Textbook transfer cock-up by us. This is what happens when you have too much money and no sense.
Also:
"Bents positioning evaporated like a fleas wet fart in the Sahara desert"
Having re-read my post, I apologise if this has been plagiarised from somewhere else. Just get this feeling its very similar to something I read recently.
Harry's whoring Bentley already:
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_5140485,00.html
Gutted we didn't win it. Harry should have bought on Pav around the 60th minute mark.
Typical Spurs, were our own worst enemies.
Posted by spooky at 12:38
Eh?? You time-travelling or summit?
Thought Keane was anonymous in the second half. He seemed to stop like he'd hit a brick wall. You don't mention Keane in your review Spooky, I guess it's easy to aim the negativity at the scapegoat.
Scapegoat? Bent? He played well first half, Robbo saving well from him, then he progressively got worse. He isn't immune from criticism just because other players on the pitch played just as badly. We know what Keane can do. Bent continues to frustrate, but to be fair to Spooky he hasn't actually slated him or singled him out as a scapegoat.
Most of our players were useless in the second 45.
"We need to be cunts. We just don't fucking have it in us sometimes, only when we play a 'top 4' club. We should be brushing these the likes of Rovers aside with easy.
The mentality issue is still there."
You're right. By that I assume you mean the fan's baffling mentality that you should be "brushing aside Blackburn with ease". Why exactly?
On form? Consistency and confidence? It's not meant to be insulting. If it came across like that, its more to do with tongue firmly in cheek.
We should have brushed aside Blackburn based on recent results.
And from a personal stand-point, because I disliked Big Sam and his ethics.
Reveal in the glory.
No mention of the Gomes blunder?
Though some blame can be aimed at Harry for not shaking things up a little I feel the ref had a total shocker, some of the worst reffing I seen.....ever. Totally inconsistent, blind and stupid.