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As useful
work-outs go, this was a useful enough one for Spurs. Four goals, some
very good possession football and a chance for all the forwards to get a
period of time on the pitch and do what they do best, with it being
unusual that Berbatov was the one striker who didn’t get among the
goals.
For the first 15 minutes of this game, Tottenham
controlled possession and although the match wasn’t played entirely in
the Orient half, the ball found its way heading in that direction for
most of the time. With Steed Malbranque finding space on the left and
Phil Ifil pushing up from right back on the other flank, Tottenham
looked to expose Orient on the wings. A couple of times good positions
were worked, but the crosses did not match the build-up play. Jenas
slipped a pass between two defenders to leave Bent with a shooting
chance from the right side of the box, but his effort was taken early
and flew over the top. The best early chance was a scramble from a
corner, when Jenas got a far post effort on target, but keeper Nelson
beat it out and then was quickly up to stop Berbatov’s follow-up with
his legs.
The O’s
goalie made an even better save, when Malbranque and Paul Stalteri
worked a neat move that left the Canadian defender marauding into the
box and hitting a shot from close range that Nelson somehow pushed up
and over the bar. Surprisingly, it was Orient who took the lead with
their first attack in the 17th minute. Left back Jason
Demetriou received the ball on the left, from where he played a pacy
cross into the area and Adam Boyd got to it first, flicking the ball
(which may have taken a touch off Dawson) past Robinson. Some fans
around me questioned the Spurs keeper’s role in the goal, but the cross
made it easy for the new Orient striker to get power in the header
leaving Robbo without much of a chance.
The lead
only lasted for just over 30 seconds, as Spurs went straight down the
other end and scored. Once more, Stalteri played a pass down the line
to Malbranque and with Alton Thelwell (Orient captain for the night
against his first club) tight at his back, he knocked the ball down the
line and left the defender for dead. Looking up, he played a low cross
into the box and Berbatov got a goal bound touch that was stopped by a
defender. The ball rebounded to Robbie Keane, who stuck away the chance
from close in at the far post.
After
that Orient tried to play their football, but their passing lacked the
accuracy that typified much of Tottenham’s. With Huddlestone spraying
the ball around with imperious ease, Spurs kept the ball moving and kept
nibbling away at the O’s midfield and defence. The home side’s best
chances of the rest of the first half came from free-kicks which flew
across the face of goal and failed to trouble Robinson.
As for
Spurs, they were content to try and play their way through the Orient
side and Huddlestone crashed a left foot shot a foot wide from outside
the box and coming up to half time, they were denied a second goal by a
linesman’s flag when Jenas dinked a little pass into Bent, who took it
down and finished well, slotting under the keeper’s legs.
The half
time break did little to stop Tottenham’s momentum. Their changes of
Defoe on for Bent and Routledge for Malbranque just brought fresh legs
into the side, without changing the pattern. Within nine minutes, a
forceful run form our new centre-half Younes Kaboul saw him end it by
playing in Darren Bent, who side-stepped a defender and the keeper to
shoot at goal, but his effort was blocked on the edge of the six yard
box, by Mkandawire, who was the last man. The ball went out right
towards the dead-ball line, where it was chased by Kaboul, who continued
his run and as he tried to shield the ball, Murray came in and took his
legs from under him to concede a penalty. It was a bit of an odd one,
as Kaboul looked like he was trying to barge the Orient defender out of
the way, missed and as Murray fell, he went under Kaboul and floored
him. Anyway, despite much debate, Robbie Keane ran up and with a
stutter in his run sent the ball wide of Nelson and in for 2-1.
Four
minutes later and it was 3-1, as Keane nicked the ball off an Orient
midfielder’s toe, then Huddlestone’s astute pass found the run of
Jermain Defoe, who turned to make himself a little room and then cracked
an unstoppable shot past the O’s goalie from just inside the box.
The lead
was extended even further on 65 minutes, when Defoe linked well with
Bent, slipping a neat pass through for the £16.5 million man to reach
out a leg and dribble the ball past the advancing Nelson and it just
ended up inside the right hand post for another goal in his pre-season
settling in period. There was the beginnings of a good partnership
between the two England strikers developing, although on occasion, they
did pass to where the other one wasn’t.
By now,
Martin Jol had substituted Keano, as he was close to a hat-trick (Ed –
has any Spurs player scored a treble under Jol ?). His replacement was
the precocious Adel Taarabt, who went out on the left wing, with
Routledge switching to the right. The Frenchman’s tricks delighted the
crowd, as he step-overred to his heart’s content and made the O’s
defenders’ lives a nightmare. He curled a couple of efforts just wide
after turning the defenders one way and then another, before Hud once
more passed through to Defoe, who was thwarted by Nelson’s legs. The
pairing linked up once more in the 76th minute and this time,
Jermain lifted the ball neatly over the keeper and into the net, only to
look up to see a flag being waved by the linesman.
Huddlestone was being urged to shoot at every opportunity, but his late
effort was blocked by Mkandawire, who took the sting out of it. With
time ticking away, Orient launched a late flurry, with a cross being
headed back towards Cerny by Ifil, but with such power from close in,
that the Spurs reserve keeper had to tip it over the bar for a corner to
be sure it didn’t end up as something worse.
As the
game entered injury time, Orient came up with a late consolation and it
was probably the best goal of the game. A right wing cross from club
captain Richard Purchese was struck first time by Efe Echanomi as the
ball came across him and the ball arced over Cerny to bring the final
score back to 4-2 as the striker flik-flaked his way off in celebration.
The only drawback was
the poor organisation before the game, with little information on the
tickets, many fans were in the wrong stand and had to be walked around
the pitch to the stand behind the goal. Initially, Tottenham were
to house all their supporters in the West Stand, but demand must have
meant they opened up the North Stand to Spurs fans. The inability
to cope with a 9,000 crowd is worrying in this day and age, so the
delayed kick off was another irritation, but overall, the side had a
tough enough match, with some of the Orient challenges being more than
robust. It will be a taste of things to come for Spurs, I am sure.
Marco van Hip |
