Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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England game was quite a good watch and they got the draw as a last gasp after some horrendous earlier mistakes and missing very good chances. With first choice players it should be better and some of the debut and second choice players did their cause no harm as they played well despite the two results.

Pity about Wales though. I was keeping an eye on the score but when it came down to penalties you can't predict who will miss or have their penalty saved first. On this occasion it was Wales.

By all accounts Ben Davies played a real captain's role throughout which was good to hear.

[EJG1980]

The thing I always look for when I see an international team has lost a penalty shootout: did any of the Spurs players miss? So I'm glad that Ben did indeed put his penalty away, but I don't suppose that's too much comfort to him this morning.

Probably mentioned it a few times over the years on here, but I've always liked Ben Davies, you need ultra reliable and professional players like him in your squad. I think it's telling that we've had different managers of very varying styles and philosophies during his time here, and Ben has always had a decent amount of game time under all of them.

I've always thought too that he seems like the kind of player who might become a manager, and I saw a tweet from Alasdair Gold yesterday that said "Ben Davies was today awarded his UEFA A and Elite Youth A Licence. He's been working for two years towards it within Spurs' academy and can now take charge of youth teams up to the age of 18, reserve teams and professional second-tier sides. The Tottenham left-back has already said he wants to go on to get his pro licence before he hangs up his boots so he could go straight into coaching if he wants." so it looks like that's definitely an aim of his. Future Spurs manager maybe!

Yeah, the England game ended up being a decent watch. Magnificent assist from Maddison for the equaliser; right near the touchline, little space, three opposition defenders surrounding him, and his outside of the boot pass to Bellingham was perfect. I know the fanfare always goes to the goalscorer, but I think that assist deserves a bit more hoopla that it got

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Yes a BD 'fan' too. Under appreciated by several past Spurs' mangers but didn't jump ship. I like that sort of loyalty and if he is going to go on eventually to a coaching/managerial career Spurs would do well to keep him.

Talking of Spurs players, in this case an ex-Spurs one, and penalties it was our favourite Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen who was adjudged to have fouled Ivan Toney giving England their penalty yesterday.

30.03.24 EDIT

Made hard work of the Luton game through not putting away good chances but we got there at the end. Unfortunately Wolves did us no favours against AV so the next game (WH?) is another must win and you can never be sure of the result against them whatever their current form. Could be a tough game.

A lot of other good to watch Premiership games today too (Saturday), the 4 - 3 Newcastle v WH one probably being the best.

[EJG1980]

It's been a while since I've seen a match with that many "How didn't it go in???" moments! Son hitting the post, the ball rolling along the goal line, then hitting the other post; Sarr's shot that was blocked on the line by a defender; And Johnson's shot that also ran along most of the goal line before being cleared off the line a literal millimetre or two before it crossed. A few other very big chances for Werner, Son, Porro, where they should have done better too, but thankfully we got there in the end for the deserved win.

Johnson had a big impact when he came on, man of the match performance that really lifted our game up a level. Although I thought they did a slight disservice to Kulusevski on the Match of the Day analysis. It definitely was the right move to sub him out for Johnson, in general it wasn't Kulu's greatest game, but they failed to mention that he did play two absolutely superb passes to set up the Werner miss that should have been a goal, and the Son shot that hit both posts and came out. So overall not a great display but with 1% better execution from the strikers he still would have set up two goals.

One of my brothers summed up being a football fan with his texts to me about West Ham: "They're 3-1 up at Newcastle, that'll give them confidence, it'll make playing them next even tougher." Later on: "Newcastle 4 West Ham 3! I don't like it, West Ham will want to bounce back from that, it'll make playing them next even tougher!"

Tuesday edit: yup, tough match, draw was a fair enough result in the end. A win would have obviously been nicer but it could be a useful point by the end of the season. A shame our late injury time chance fell to Udogie instead of someone like Son, it would have been lovely to nick it!

That leaves us two points behind Villa with both of us having eight games left. Tight! Villa playing Man City away on Wednesday evening though, so, fingers crossed the expected Man City win happens, and then we're two behind with a game in hand.

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I can see it going down to the results we and AV have against MC, Arsenal and Liverpool. By any measure we should be at least three points ahead of AV but our poor results against Fulham and Wolves are likely going to cost us dear at the end of the season but it is still all to play for at this point that is for sure.

Thursday Edit

Another extraordinary game this week today at Chelsea who did us a favour by beating MU and leaves them still nine points behind us with the same number of games played. If Spurs can manage not to stuff up against NF it will be 'just' a straight fight between us and AV for fourth place and with a game in hand too.

[EJG1980]

Another extraordinary game this week today at Chelsea who did us a favour by beating MU and leaves them still nine points behind us with the same number of games played. If Spurs can manage not to stuff up against NF it will be 'just' a straight fight between us and AV for fourth place and with a game in hand too.

Yup, watched it live, mad mad match. I think a large part of it was down to both sides being capable of being so flakey It also breaks the record for latest turnaround win that we set earlier in the season with our win against Sheffield United.

Ten Hag must be sick of Poch too, throwing away a 3-0 lead against Poch’s Spurs when he was Ajax manager (which also included a last minute winner by a player completing a hat-trick) and now this.

Saturday edit:

Unexpected bonus result for us today with Brentford getting a 3-3 draw against Villa having been 2-0 down at half time. It was a shame Brentford didn't hold on for the win after they went 2-3 ahead, but I'd have snapped your hand off for the draw when Villa were 2-0 up, so I'm not too disappointed.

It makes our match with Forest even more important now, it could be a real crunch moment in the season. Win and we go 4th on goal difference and still have a game in hand on Villa. Of course there will still be too many games to go for any result tomorrow to be decisive, but a loss or draw will feel like a big opportunity missed. COYS!

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I was going to post much the same comment about the Brentford game - if only they could have held on for the win but a draw is still good for us as you say.

Also have to mention Spurs' 'secret' weapon: Serge Reguilon on loan at Brentford, played really well for them by all accounts.

[EJG1980]

Yes, three points

Strange first half, we started really well, deservedly went ahead, were probing for a second, switched off for a moment at the back and Forest equalise. For some reason that made us really lose our composure and Forest were the better team for the rest of the half, and we were lucky not to go behind to the Chris Wood chance that somehow hit the post.

Thankfully we capitalised on that luck and sorted ourselves out in the second half, started playing well again and scored a couple of lovely goals (that Micky VDV hit, wow, nearly broke the net) and saw out the match very comfortably, save for a couple of minor self inflicted iffy moments near the end.

Deserved the win (in the end) but we’re still waiting for a few players to find their very best form they showed earlier in the season. At this stage of the season though, all that matters is winning, but if the likes of Maddison, Son, Kulu, etc., can find their very best form for the run in, it’d be a real boost.

Edit: just seen that ex-Spurs player Joe Kinnear has sadly died today. I know he was a very good player for us although that was before my time so my memories of him are as a manager from when I first started watching football, always an entertaining press conference / post match interview. RIP.

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I saw that about Joe Kinnear too; a stalwart defender and reliable Spurs player his career started with Spurs before even I can remember. He was, I had to check this as, again, I don't remember it, part of the Spurs squad which first won the UEFA cup in 1972. I'm pretty sure I must have seen him play at least once.

As you said he was more widely known for his later managerial career, particularly when at Wimbledon and Newcastle. Sad loss; along with his contemporary Terry Venables that's two Spurs legends gone this season.

[Mayhem]

Obviously as a Wimbledon supporter back then, very familiar with Kinnear heh.

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Not going at all well today against Newcastle (understatement) and at 3 - 0 down the chances of a turn around with only 10mins left is...........................unlikely.

[EJG1980]

Not going at all well today against Newcastle (understatement) and at 3 - 0 down the chances of a turn around with only 10mins left is...........................unlikely.

Yup, perhaps our worst performance of the season today (or at least joint with Fulham away, but I’ve tried to erase that from my mind so it’s hard to compare). The first 25 minutes or so was fairly bog standard match, nothing great, nothing too horrible, one decent chance that Werner should have done much better from. The it was poor play all around for the first we conceded, and that just seemed to make us fall off a cliff completely. I can’t really think of any positives from the match at all.

A two week break now until our very tough final six fixtures begins. You can never tell in advance if a long break is a good or a bad thing, but let’s keep our fingers crossed that it is, because if we play like that against Arsenal…. 😬

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We have the Spurs' Womens' FA Cup semi-final against Leicester later today - hopefully that will raise all supporters and the whole club's spirits if they get a good result.

SUNDAY NEW EDIT

YAY! That improved my mood. Took some time after going down a goal early and I thought it would peter out but when that equalizer (very good finish) went in it felt like Spurs had the momentum and character to win. More than a few heart in mouth moments but when Spurs got the goal in extra time.....that was just brilliant.

Spurs history being made and more to come whatever the result in the final. Never thought I'd be this pleased about a womens' game result but I'll take any Spurs success wherever it comes from particularly when so well deserved.

I see MU Women have just gone 2 - 0 against Chelsea, that's a little unexpected but a MU versus Spurs FA Cup final does have the ring of a classic about it.

[EJG1980]

Yup, great day for the club, and our first FA Cup semi-final win since 1991 when we beat Arsenal (which coincidentally was also on the 14th of April). As we'd lost 8 FA Cup semi-finals in a row since then, let's hope this breaks the curse for the club as a whole so that the men can emulate the women asap

Really good atmosphere in the stadium, although I was hoping the crowd would be bigger. Having said that, we got 19,000 for our league match against Arsenal, so hoping to get much more than that for Leicester (even if it was an FA Cup semi) was probably wishful thinking. The women's team still has a lot of growing to do but hopefully this is something that can really spur (pun intended) that growth, especially if we defy expectations and win the final.

Which will be against Man Utd as they held on against Chelsea. Probably an easier match when you consider what a dominant force Chelsea are in the women's game, and that we're only 6 points behind Man Utd in the league and 18 behind Chelsea. Having said that we've never beaten Man Utd (I looked up our record, 8 losses and 1 draw) but an FA Cup final couldn't be a much better place to change that! The only downer is that now Grace Clinton won't be able to play in the final.

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Yes, that is a downer but I thought whilst she was good in the first half, surprisingly, she ran out of steam well before extra time and probably why she was subbed. In short: there are enough other good players available to get Spurs a win in the final.

Sunday Edit
After the less than interesting MC v Chelsea FACup semi-final on Saturday I thought the MU v Coventry game was going the same way so I actually switched to the MC Women v WH Women on the Red Button and got the near misses, incidents and goals (5 - 0) I was looking for.

So glad of ITV+1 because I went back to the MU v Coventry game at just the right time to see MU almost lose it after being 3 - 0 up.

Proper FA Cup underdog comeback by Coventry thwarted from winning by VAR in the last moments of extra time. Then the penalty shoot out - great footballing entertainment, eventually.