Spurs 3 Rovers 1
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 12:46PM 9 games to go. Are you positively buzzing with excitement? You should be. I don't care about how difficult our remaining fixtures are, the harder they fall right? Usually it's us laying flat on the floor, face in mud, but I can see this going to the wire simply because it's been on the wire since practically the start. And having the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal (at home) might just turn out to be a blessing. We've done Chelsea a couple of times in recent seasons at the Lane. Arsenal? Well, it's been too long, and those lucky lucky mongs ('special spirit', lol) and their voodoo over us must be ended. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And if we happen to shag it up against lesser opponents, we'll still have a say in the title race, a massive one, as we've also got Utd to play (and City) although tradition would suggest we'd be lubed up and bending over for them at Old Trafford with Howard Webb no doubt present, overseeing matters, holding a butt-plug and grinning.
Talking of Webb...actually, let's come back to him later.
First up, the win. 3-1 against Fat Sams lot in a game where Roman didn't play too well, missed a couple of decent chances but scored two goals, so even though he might have drifted in and out of the game and done his very best Andrew Cole impersonation (that's Andrew, not Andy) he still bagged himself a brace and could have had a hat-trick had he been a tad less casually with his lobbed effort. Good stuff that man. 8 in 6 games. It's impressive. And if you have an off-day and still score twice, then there's little to complain about.
Bale was strong and bold, worked his socks off demanding the ball and giving Salgado a tormented time. Yes, yes, Michel is an old man, but Gareth is doing this week in and week out. Will be interesting to see how he fairs in the left-wing position against the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, and my money is on him continuing his stunning form. Season of comebacks this, with Roman and Bentley (until his injury) working their way back into our good books.
Dawson and Bassong were fine at the back, Daws showing off with his long range passing. Bassong, reliable and comfortable. Wilson (one card away from a suspension which might well prove to have devastating consequences if he happens to miss one of the Big Three games) was just flipping great in midfield. Again. Wasn't the best of games for Modric but then it wasn't the best of games full stop with the most effective play coming from the wings rather than through the middle. Although Wilson did play a delicious through-ball at one point that Luka would have been proud of. Palacios is back baby, he's back!
Corluka, not so great (wonderfully summed up here by AANP) and Niko struggled to impose himself. Special mention to BAE and his over-head kicks.
So in the midst of some decent individual performances and some sort-of half-decent-but-not-amazing attacking play, the game appeared to be conducted in part by the referee. Back to Howard, caught in yet another Webb. Although this time his incompetency was evenly shared out with our guests, Blackburn.
Incident One
Dunn, fouled in the penalty area, squashed between two Lilywhites. The soft lad, tumbling over. No penalty. Phew for us, but when watched over, arguably the wrong decision. But I (we) can live with that.
Pav has a couple of efforts, and then just before half-time, Niko corner, Charlie flicks it on and JD poaches it home. 1-0, half-time. Deserved. 23 goals for Defoe this season. Applaud that.
Second half, Rovers are a little bit more lively, but alas, we counter and JD feeds Roman who fires in a shot that manages to bounce under Jason Brown (Robbo off injured allowing a rest-bite from all the singing from the home fans, yes, we still sing up for Robbo, quaint stuff) for 2-0. These things happen.
Incident Two
Penalty to Spurs, although there is no guarantee we'll score it and, no, hold up...no penalty. Webb, standing in what was a perfect position gives a goal-kick. Bale taken down by Salgado. Blatantly.
Unbelievable.
No pen. Guilt for not giving Rovers a pen? I guess he wasn't in a decent enough position for the Dunn incident, possibly saw his mistake at half-time, and sprinkled his own unique brand of anti-spurs karma on this decision. If it's not a penalty then book Bale. He doesn't. So what kind of consistency is this? You make one mistake, surely you make up for it by getting it right the next time? In fact what you should do as a ref is react solely based on the incident regardless of what has or has not been given before. I can only deduce that Webb is making concious decisions when to give or not give a decision based on his own personal agenda. The man is a fucking clown.
Incident Three
Bale fouled again in the box. No penalty again. Although someone who watched this on Sky Sports might be able to confirm if it was in or out of the box (if I got this wrong, then ignore incident three, happy to admit to my mistake).
Blackburn score with around 10 minutes to go which meant that we were about to enter the 'bite your nails off' arena with Spurs putting us all through the mire once more. Samba climbing all over Dawson (not that I would have disallowed it, but there are ref's out there that would have) to nod the ball in. Soft goal, Gomes caught in a huddle of players, lost but inconsequential because surprisingly we scored a third. Pav on his own, fluffs it, and seconds later the ball finds its self crossed over to Bale who strikes a majestic volley-pass across the face of the goal for Roman to score - with additional credit to Pascal Chimbonda who seemed to be man-marking himself and no-one else. 3-1. The end. Or not quite.
Incident Four
Webb's agenda by the way is a form of self-cleansing and perhaps not giving us a pen resulted with him disallowing a superb effort from Kalinic. Handball apparently. Even though Dawson fouled the player resulting in the handball.
Seems Howard Webb is incapable of simply ghosting through a game and allowing it to be about the players and the teams rather than his comical attempts at being masterful with officiating.
I'm guessing had this been us versus a <insert top 4 monopoly team here> his mistakes would have been far more specific and concentrated (against us, no doubt).
Yes, yes, conspiracy this conspiracy that. Read it and dry them:
2007/8, Man Utd (Old Trafford)
0-0 after 60mins, Berbatov rounds van der Sar and shoots, only for Wes Brown to block the shot with his arm. Webb does not give the penalty. Alan Hansen described it as "clearly a penalty" and that Brown should have been sent-off.
2008/9, Man Utd (Old Trafford)
Spurs leading 2-0 after 57mins, Webb gives a shocking penalty to United. After the game, and after a huge amount of (negative) coverage, he apologises for the decision.
2009/10, Chelsea (Stamford Bridge)
1-0 to Chelsea after 55mins, Keane is through on goal but is brought down by Carvalho. Webb doesn't give the penalty. It was described by the Guardian live text as "Absolute 100%, 24-carat stonewall penalty to Spurs. Not given."
2009/10, Liverpool (Anfield)
Liverpool leading 1-0 after 35mins, Kyrgiakos is all over Crouch in the box. Webb gives a free-kick to Liverpool, described as a "strange decision" on BBC Sport's live text.
After 47mins, Defoe capitalises on a mistake in the Liverpool defence to score, but Webb disallows the goal. The match report on the BBC Sport webpage says "the exact nature of the offence was not clear".
200/910, Blackburn (White Hart Lane)
Spurs leading 2-0 after 65mins, Bale is brought down in the box by Salgado. Webb doesn't give a penalty. BBC Sport's live text states "I'm not sure how or why that wasn't a penalty".
(compiled by Day of the Triffics pt.2)
There's incompetency and then there's Howard sodding Webb.
In the end, we still won. And won well. Still 4th. Still in it. And that's about as much as you can ask for from the team. 19 points the target. 3 taken, 16 more required. So says Harry.
Onwards.
COYS.
Reader Comments (27)
This is the year, put up or shut up. We either take 5+ points of Manure, Cheatski and LeArse, or we don't make it. COYS!
hi spooky! welcome back!
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2010/03/tottenham-could-decide-the-championship/
I can imagine the Blackburn fans feeling very hard done by. On balance the number of bad decisions (2 penalties/1 pen, 1 disallowed goal) is about equal, but if the Dunn penalty had been given they could argue the game would've unfolded differently. Of course, if Pavlyuchenko was a little sharper in the first half he could have scored a hat trick before half time. Modric is a little quieter in the middle, but in the counter attack for the second goal he twisted and turned and threw off the attentions of a couple of Blackburn players before advancing and playing through Defoe to set up Pav, it was the sort of play that deserved to result in a goal.
No one can deny that Howard Webb is a lady's front bottom of the highest order. However I wonder whether our fans' constant berrating of him somehow influences his decisions against us. I know, I know he's a professional and it shouldn't but the human brain is a strange old thing and perhaps on a subconscious level he hates giving decisions our way because he actually really really hates Spurs fans?
I can't remember the DUnn incident and I haven't seen it again but having seen the Bale 'penalty' I am dumbstruck. Plebb is literally 5 yards behind the foul in a perfect position to see the contact but gives nothing. Even Harry's starting to realise it now. Just pray to the good dear lord that he's nowhere near the games against the big 3!
Nice work by the compiler to remind us of the recurrent heartache caused by this clown. Is it not true that refs have to declare the club they support so as to avoid any bias, or is that just a silly rumor? It would be interesting to know which club Mr Webb supports
Why he's still a ref is beyond me.
Can you imagine if he revealed that he was a childhood spurs fan and used to watch every game. lol
Speaking of conspiracy theories and with apologies for dragging down the tome of the blog, but I suspect that SUPERDAV is actually a man (pretending to be a woman who is pretending to be a man).
Anyway I watched the match on Sky and wasnt concentrating fully but could swear I heard the chant ' super, super Dav, super, super Dav, super Davspurs blogger'. Actually SUPERDAV could have done better with a couple of Pav's chances.
Anyone else notice a Football 365 article in which the author talks about being lucky not having to do a "Madridista postmortem" on Real Madrid's exit from the CL?
http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8742_6017826,00.html
A certain "only paid Spurs blogger on the net" is gonna go ape shit.
Even Andy Gray said that it was a staggeringly obvious penalty and if it's not given then Bale should be booked for the most spectacularly dive of the season.
Webb is either incompetant or corrupt, there is no other explanation.
Hey Spooky, great blog mate. Good win for the boys, but the biggest talking point has to be Webb... Isn't he England's only ref at the world cup in Sth Africa? He could get more headlines than Rooney will.
Dont feel sorry for Sams bunnies yes the goal was real the pen was real our pen was a pen but the rest was not and we should rejoice in the three points in this power station energized year. Has i right this wunderland are doing us a favor by running the legs of the Tasmanian Devils Torres ,Team the Cammels Humps and yes i would have scored som e of Pavs misses and my Bollocks are back in my under crackers i have been defrocked wellcome back to DAVSPURS THE Mans man ,Gloooooooooory GLooooooooooooooooooooooory Super Spurs
Good effort, good Bale, good result!
Welcome back Spooky, have a good holiday?
Was he ever away?
In spirit only.
It's back in our hands now surely,. just finished with the Sunderland v Man City game (great match by the way-it certainly is adifferent view from the top of the pile, no woder those fuckers feel so smug). We can beat these teams, not easily but I have seen nothing that causes alarms, even with our injury ravaged sqad. City's game in hand is against Everton. Have to agree with our esteemed author, it's about time for us to have our way with the SKY3. I'm beginnig to fancy our run in we face the relegation bound sides at times when their fate would be more or less decided, which leaves us against the ball playing teams. Yes we can.
the dunn incident didn't seem to be as clear cut...even the announcers said it seemed like the right call because palacios (i believe) knocked the ball a bit first. either way it was a pretty stupid challenge. how is webb going to the world cup?! it's baffling...
The FA should have a points system, regarding how refs perform, and at the end of the season ,the bottom 3 refs should be relegated to the lower league, and I bet webb will never ref the premier.
2 points clear of City now but we have to keep pressing on.
Interesting that prior to the Blackburn match 'Arry said we need 19 points from the remaining 10 matches. He also emphasized the importance of winning yesterday's match towards achieving that goal. By my calculation we will have to either win 6 matches and draw 1, or win 5 matches and draw 4. We can chalk off one win from the required number meaning we have to get either 4 or 5 wins. Our remaining fixtures are as follows:
3/20 Stoke vs Tottenham (Must win)
3/27 Tottenham vs Portsmouth (Definite win)
4/3 Sunderland vs Tottenham (Must win / Likely draw)
4/10 Tottenham vs Arsenal (Possible draw)
4/17 Tottenham vs Chelsea (Likely draw / Possible win)
4/25 Man Utd vs Tottenham (Definite loss)
5/1 Tottenham vs Bolton (Must win)
5/9 Burnley vs Tottenham (Must win)
YTBD Man City vs Tottenham (Likely draw / Possible win)
I believe we have 3 highly likely winnable matches (Pompey, Bolton and Burnley), 2 highly probable winnable matches (Stoke and Sunderland), 3 matches to get at least a draw (AR5Ena1, Chelsea, and Man City), and a match we all accept we will get lubed on (ManU).
With Liverpool faltering, Aston Villa stalling, and Man City once again showing they are vastly over-rated in spite of the their talents, 4th increasingly looks highly achievable. It all boils down to how we hold up in the last 9 matches.
what a lot of crap. modric did everything that was asked of him and we won the game. he is now playing CM in case you havent noticed you halfwit. he cant drift around the field like he could before. typical critical tottenham fan with little knowledge of football.
Who you aiming that at? You do know football is all about opinions right? Typical sensitive tottenham fan with little patience for others. Modric was quiet, the original author doesnt say anything more than that unless you've managed to read something we've all missed.
Howard Webb is going to be our referee at the World Cup. Sweet Jesus.* shakes head *
Dean, you referring to me there buddy? Funny how you manage to ignore what is arguably a positive article on Spurs to concentrate on (by my own admission) an ambiguous comment on Modric. Typical knee-jerk, no?
Spooky. yeah was refering to you mate. Actually ,wasn't ignoring your article as you can see this is the second time i'm commenting on it. However , the only thing that captured my concentration in the article, was your comment on Modric. What I saw, when I watched the game in regards to Modric, was different to the way you saw it however. I thought he played a solid CM role, working well with Palacious and tacking no risks to get caught out of position. Maybe my knees did jerk a little, but hey nobodys perfect aye. COYS
.
Hey Steve, Never been called sensitive before . Thanks for that. Also, no need to speak in the plural. Its just you , not we.
"Interesting that prior to the Blackburn match 'Arry said we need 19 points from the remaining 10 matches. He also emphasized the importance of winning yesterday's match towards achieving that goal. By my calculation we will have to either win 6 matches and draw 1, or win 5 matches and draw 4. We can chalk off one win from the required number meaning we have to get either 4 or 5 wins. Our remaining fixtures are as follows:
3/20 Stoke vs Tottenham (Must win)
3/27 Tottenham vs Portsmouth (Definite win)
4/3 Sunderland vs Tottenham (Must win / Likely draw)
4/10 Tottenham vs Arsenal (Possible draw)
4/17 Tottenham vs Chelsea (Likely draw / Possible win)
4/25 Man Utd vs Tottenham (Definite loss)
5/1 Tottenham vs Bolton (Must win)
5/9 Burnley vs Tottenham (Must win)
YTBD Man City vs Tottenham (Likely draw / Possible win)
I believe we have 3 highly likely winnable matches (Pompey, Bolton and Burnley), 2 highly probable winnable matches (Stoke and Sunderland), 3 matches to get at least a draw (AR5Ena1, Chelsea, and Man City), and a match we all accept we will get lubed on (ManU)."
By my estimation above, we have right on target for attaining the points 'Arry thinks we need. Today's win was massive. Really, really massive as we could have easily let the match slip away, which would end up making our task of negotiating a 68 point season much more difficult. Now we are only 13 points away with 8 more matches to go.
Next up is Pompey. No ifs or buts about it next week, we have to pick up those 3 points and rack up our goals difference tally in the process as that could end up being a determining factor at the end of the season. Winning that match would also mean we will be only 10 points shy of our stated goal.
Can we do it???
I'll make sure I don't leave anything for mis-interpretation next time.
COYS indeedy.