Newcastle United   2   Tottenham Hotspur    1      (Half-time score : 1-1)

  1  Given

21  Beye
12  Bassong
  2  Coloccini
  3  Jose Enrique      (11 Duff 88      )

18  Gutierrez     
  8  Guthrie
22  Butt
14  N'Zogbia

23  Ameobi (36  Viduka 30)
10  Owen (c)
 

Unused subs: 
13  Harper
20  Geremi
27  Taylor
30  Edgar
39  Carroll
 

  1  Gomes

22  Corluka
26  King (c)
20  Dawson
32  Assou-Ekotto

  5  Bentley
  4  Zokora
  6  Huddlestone     
  7  Lennon

14  Modric     

  9  Pavlyuchenko (18  Campbell 64)

Unused subs: 
21  Cesar
  3  Bale
16  Gunter
19  Taarabt
23  Boateng
24  O'Hara

N'Zogbia 12
Duff 89

Tottenham Hotspur

Modric  28

    
Enrique (foul) 19  
Guttierez (foul) 89
Duff (dissent) 89

     
Huddlestone (diving) 62
Modric (foul) 88
 

A couple of early challenges rattled the home players.  Assou-Ekotto caught Guttierez as he jumped for a header and the always prone to injury Ameobi also took a knock, which later forced him off with 30 minutes gone.  The home defence were also shaken in the first couple of minutes, with Lennon making an incisive run into the penalty area and instead of steadying himself to pick someone out, he rashly played a hard-hit cross across the face of goal, without a player there to touch it in, as Pavlyuchenko had to back out from an offside position.

A string of early corners put United under pressure, but there was not enough end product.  Dawson got in ahead of his marker and forced Given to push it over the top as it looked like it might drop over him.  From a free-kick, Newcastle played a huge ball downfield from Given and Assou-Ekotto was underneath it, but was out-muscled, despite knocking the Newcastle midfielder over, allowing N'Zogbia to go on to shoot past Gomes to give the home team a 12th minute lead.  It is another example of the old Spurs, who got caught out like this.  With King back, but Woodgate missing, the lack of a regular back four might have cost us the first goal.  However, questions should be asked about the other two defenders who gave up running and left Benoit to deal with it on his own.

Up to that stage, Tottenham had looked good.  And they did again after the goal, with Bentley making good space inside the penalty box before pulling his shot along the floor and wide.  But Tottenham also had to be alert at the back, where Dawson foiled Owen when it looked like he would shoot after Butt's neat ball through and then, when Owen supplied Butt, his legs got him there, but his control was not equal to it.  Then Gomes was alert to push out N'Zogbia's cross as he got away from Corluka with ease.

With 28 minutes gone, Dawson rushed in to tackle Ameobi and the ball went forward into the Newcastle half, where Roman Pavlyuchenko was standing offside, but was running back towards his own goal, while Luka Modric was going the other way, played onside by Enrique.  He took one touch and as the ball came down and Given came out, stroked it past the Newcastle keeper for the equaliser.

Ameobi had been mostly harmless and his replacement by Viduka, although clearly not 100% match fit (but then is he ever ?). provided a more muscular presence up front.  However, it was the Spurs striker Pavlyuchenko who was more active; firstly testing Given from outside the box with a shot and then almost getting an open opportunity from Corluka's cross, but Collochini got in just ahead of him to knock it out for a corner.

While the first half had been open and attacking, the second was almost stultifyingly dull. Both teams appeared to have lost the verve for the game they showed in the first 45 minutes, although Tottenham did start the half well.  A short corner saw Modric cross and the ball drop with Michael Dawson trying a spectacular scissors kick, but he's not Klinsmann and the ball went well over the top.  Then a few minutes later, N'Zogbia got past Corluka again, much as Lennon had the run on Enrique, but the winger's cross found only Assou-Ekotto who cleared on the edge of the six yard box.

The ball made it's way into both boxes, but when Huddlestone chased a ball in around the penalty spot in the Newcastle box, Given came out to meet him and to avoid squashing the goalie, it appeared that Tom leapt over him, but the referee saw this as a dive to earn a penalty and showed him a yellow card.  Dear, so dear Mr. Marriner, where were you when we needed you in previous games ? 

Spurs took of Pav and brought on their only other fit striker Campbell, who showed good energy, but has not yet quite perfected the timing of his runs into dangerous areas.  His counterpart on the other side has done this for years and one such run saw the ball land at his feet ten yards out and that normally only means one thing, but on this occasion, Michael Owen managed to hit his shot way over the bar, when anything on target might have reaped the reward of a goal.  Campbell got a bit too far ahead of Lennon's cross with ten minutes left and could not get a header on goal.

Cards were exchanged, as they are at this time of year, with Modric and Guttierez going into the book for fouls, but when another long ball was played into the Tottenham defence, nothing looked too dangerous.  However, King's weak header was picked up by Duff, who had only been on for a minute.  He knocked it in to Viduka inside the area and the Aussie took one touch, then back-heeled it into Duff's path, as he had continued his run and nobody had gone with him.  So, in the last minute of the game, the winger had time to dribble the ball past Gomes and into the net for what seemed like the winner, being so close to the end.

His celebrations earned him a booking and some added time for Tottenham to try and salvage something from a game that both teams seemed happy enough playing out as a draw.  There was still enough time for Modric to dink a cross into the empty heart of the Newcastle box to where Fraizer Campbell was moving.  As the ball came in, Given stood rooted to his line and a decent touch might have taken the ball away from the keeper and into the net, but without realising what was going on around him, Campbell tried to flick a header and missed the ball completely.

It was a desperate end to a match which Spurs should have been ahead in.  The fact that the team are still trying to be too clever when not safely in the lead, means that any error they make is being punished and points are being lost.

This was to be the first of the winnable games we had coming up.  It was but the side failed to capitalise on Newcastle's fragile defence.  They need to be more ruthless, as, although they are out of the bottom three, with other results this weekend, the battle to avoid the drop is still as close as ever.

BURTON BRADSTOCK