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Season 2001-02 
Tottenham Hotspur (a) Premiership

Date:
Wednesday 30th January 2002, 7.45pm.

Venue: White Hart Lane

Conditions: Moist

Tickets: £tbc

Programme: £tbc

 



 

Tottenham  1 - 3 Newcastle United
  Teams
 

Goals

16 mins Newcastle had a few chances to clear a corner from the right but it was headed down to Steffen Iversen who thumped a low drive inside the post from about six yards.

Half time: Tottenham 1 Newcastle 0

67 mins The start of a stunning comeback. Craig Bellamy was tugged back by Richards after another stunning burst of pace. Laurent Robert flighted a free-kick from the right to the far post where the unmarked Clarence Acuna nodded in from only a yard out.

69 mins Bellamy broke free down the left wing and cut in to the byline where he put over the perfect cross to the far post and Alan Shearer tucked it into the corner of the goal.

78 mins Craig Bellamy picked up the ball in the middle of the Spurs half and strolled unopposed towards the box, knocking the ball right to Aaron Hughes. Bellamy continued his run - seemingly invisible to the home defence - and when Hughes put over a great ball to the near post wor Welsh Wizard was on hand to tuck home.

Full time: Tottenham 1 Newcastle 3

We Said

Uncle Bobby said:  

"Really, we had a makeshift team out there tonight. We lost the whole midfield section with Gary Speed, Kieron Dyer and Rob Lee missing. Can you imagine a Spurs team without Poyet, Sherwood and Anderton? 

"But the players won this game for us. I thought they were scintillating in the second half when we gave an incredible performance. We had bags of energy and enthusiasm on what was a pudding of a pitch. 

"Don't forget Spurs had a day off at the weekend while we played on another energy-sapping pitch at Peterborough. I thought our legs would crack before them but they didn't. 

"We out-ran them and if you out-run them you can out-pass them. Alan Shearer and Craig Bellamy deserved their goals and Laurent Robert made a difference when he came on. 

"Jamie McClen ran his little heart out. He was neat and tidy and I could not have asked for more from him. "Aaron Hughes did a great job on Gus Poyet and so too did Nobby Solano after I asked him to play a lot deeper. 

"And what about Clarence Acuna? Not only did he score but he battled like he always does. We didn't see much of Darren Anderton in the second half because Acuna took care of him." 

They Said

Glenda Hoddle uttered:

"I didn't see where that second half performance was coming from, to be honest. At half time I felt we were probably worth more than a one goal lead.

"We nullified everything they had attacking wise - I can't remember them creating anything in the first half.

"Quite frankly, the second half shows what happens to you in this league if you switch off. I didn't think our work rate was there like it has been, the squad's a bit stretched at the moment and we looked a bit fatigued I must say.

"But in saying that, I didn't think the attitude and work rate was there and consequently we get punished.

"They've got good players on the pitch, we knew that from the start. The likes of Shearer and Bellamy, you can't give them opportunities like we did in the second half and hope to win the game. So they punished us when they got the chances.

"We had some great opportunities, Steffen Iversen had a great chance, Deano had a couple of chances and looking back, they were the key moments for us when we could have won the game.

"But I didn't like the way we played in the second half - at all.

"No desire to win the ball back, we were stretched as a team, all the things we haven't been doing this season and we got punished.

"I don't think it was a case of coasting - I've seen us play better and I said that at half-time. We were doing enough to be two-up, but at one-nil you're never safe in the Premiership.

"We may have been a bit leggy, a bit tired. They took a chance second half and played two v two at the back a lot of times, but we didn't look sharp enough to really capitalise on that. That was disappointing as well.

"It was poor marking, it really was, and that's something we've been quite good at from free-kicks. It was difficult to take that one on the chin because it could have been averted quite easily.

"I could see that the lads had taken their foot off the pedal before they scored - and that can't happen again this season.

"It's one of those games I'll look back on at the end of the season and say we were our own worst enemy. The second half performance is something we'll have to stamp out if we're going to achieve anything."
 

Match Stats

The completion of an interesting set of Premiership games in London, and a creditable return of: Played 6: won 2, drawn 2, lost 2.

Now 7 away wins in the Premiership this season, our best return since 1995/96 when we matched that figure. With 6 trips still to come, we're on course to at least equal the figure of 9 wins achieved in season 1993/94. Our record away points haul from that season was 31 points - we've currently gained 24 away from the toon from a possible 39.

Teams who can still do the double over us this season: Liverpool, Fulham, West Ham. 
(and we've not played Southampton at all yet.)

Alan Shearer's 80th Premiership goal for Newcastle: 26 on the road, 54 at St.James'. His next successful penalty will be his 20th in the Premiership for us.

Waffle

What an odd place this is to be sure.

Like John Gregory, Glenn Hoddle is another manager who appears to possess more than a hint of other-worldliness - there's something very creepy about him, especially when interviewed, and that evangelical zeal, (or madness) can be seen in his eyes. 

It's not only the manager though that seems a little strange, but also the whole ground - it's reasonably well refurbished but clincial and lacking something spiritual - Hoddle may have connections to the "other side" (and I don't mean Arsenal), but there doesn't seem a great deal of that commodity at White Hart Lane. This from a side who qualified for a cup final a week ago. 

Arriving some 30 minutes before the start, it seemed as if pre-match predictions of a near-sell out were hopelessly wide of the mark. There appeared no great bustle outside and as kickoff approached large expanses of unoccupied blue seats were still evident. A rough estimate of the number seats still free when the match kicked off would be about 5,000.

Perhaps the tardiness of the locals could be explained by the unutterably awful pre-match buildup, which consisted of a video clips package of great Spurs moments being relayed via the large screen at one end, to the accompaniment of the most tuneless drone imaginable, masquerading as a soundtrack.

Someone in the corridors of power here has apparently seen fit to employ the illegitimate (and tone deaf) sons of Chas 'n' Dave, and lock them in a recording studio with a cabaret drummer. The results are appalling, making our own shouter Harry Palmer sound like Marvin Gaye in comparison.

After 15 minutes of this, people in the crowd were seen to visibly wilt in the face of this sonic onslaught - every possible permutation of home player named in all-to familiar football ditty form - "one Sergei Rebrov, one Gus Poyet", "on the first day of Xmas Glenn Hoddle gave to me..." etc etc. was blasted out in one remorseless tide. If that toon fan from AC/DC was here, he'll have found out what noise pollution really was....

While the mid-game Premiership score flashes seemed to be well received by the crowd, the rest is just further proof what a tacky and counter-productive spectacle can be conjured up by well-meaning idiots with technology at their disposal. 

The thing about atmosphere is that it's natural - you can't get it out of a tin or off a CD. All Spurs have succeeded in doing is mask any attempts at crowd participation before the game - was Teddy Sheringham applauded by the home fans as he warmed up? we'll never know because some cockney slackjaw was blasting his tuneless guff from the PA - the same trick that they used to pull at Wembley.

So to the comparative safety of the game, and the fairly early goal that kept the toon fans singing and woke up the home support. From the lofty vantage point of the upper toon corner it seemed as if Poyet had again been pinpointed as the threat to us, and Hughes had been detailed to shadow his movements and penalty area rushes. 

Meanwhile Robbie Elliott continued at left back, with three central defenders grouped infield and Nolberto Solano somewhere on the right flank in a position similar to his former international wing back role.

The conclusion arrived at after an opening 45 minutes in which we went behind and created nowt was that we'd dropped a clanger in changing things round to combat the perceived threat from Spurs. For once though, the reality was slightly different.

Individually, there were good committed performances, principally from Distin and Solano, but collectively we just couldn't get things started at all. A litany of misplaced simple passes and fruitless running characterised the opening half, with Shearer seemingly unable or unwilling to go anywhere near the ball. 

However, we were only one behind and a Les-less Spurs side hadn't done much after scoring, seeming to be smugly content to be one up against a misfiring United outfit.

The introduction of Laurent Robert after the break showed that Bobby seemed to share our muted optimism that this was salvageable. Elliott was withdrawn, but the back line stayed much the same, with Jamie McClen and Clarence Acuna the midfield mainstays. 

Whether it was an illusion created by our playing towards the away fans or not, we certainly seemed to start the second period in better heart, and Bellamy came to the fore within a few minutes with a couple of typical solo runs. 

Meanwhile it was evident that Shearer was becoming more mobile and starting to pop up down the channel on the right, pulling King out of the defence in the process and allowing Robert some room to work. In the first half we bypassed midfield and wasted a succession of passes, but in this revised lineup our fluidity meant that McClen and Acuna started to appear in dangerous positions alongside the nominal front three.

Acuna it was who levelled matters with a header from a Robert free kick after Bellamy was pulled back, and after that there was only going to be one winner as Spurs were left reeling on the ropes like a dazed boxer.

They seemed incapable of stepping up from their slumbering pattern of play, and straight away we played through them to snatch a second goal. While he'd not got on the score sheet, the ability of Robert to find space and put his foot on the ball was proving a vital commodity as confidence visibly returned to the players. 

McClen exemplified this by putting in some good work down the right in place of Solano, and not being afraid to try to play creatively as the game went on. I suppose even getting to start two games in a row must be a boost of sorts to the perennial reserve.

If anything, our chief handicap seemed to be that when we split the home defence it tended to be Robert and Bellamy charging in from each side, with one in possession and the other frantically trying to indicate his unmarked status, waiting in vain for a pass that never came.

That this even gets a mention though is proof of the complete turnaround in fortunes enjoyed by Newcastle - we were back to the high-octane style that has seen off teams across the country this season, and without Kieron Dyer. 

A third goal seemed almost inevitable, and in truth it could have been more, but at the back more good work from Sylvain Distin and the rest kept what attacks Spurs could muster at arms length, and another tremendous save from Shay Given snuffed out any hint of a comeback.   

What's especially pleasing is that this win, unlike the Arsenal and Leeds successes was purely due to a greater will to win from a Toon team against a London team - there were no dubious decisions, no dismissals, no penalties to carp on about on Radio 5 phone ins for days after, just a bona-fide deserved Newcastle victory.

Now, bring on the "easy" ones and let's see what we make of them. Into February now, and we're still kicking against the pricks and upsetting the cockney media darlings. 

Bravo, Bobby and his boys...  

Biffa

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