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In what was a fairly physical game at times, no yellow cards were shown
during this 1-1 draw between Newcastle United and Spurs, with both sides
showing a deal more attacking intent than any defensive reliance.
Mark Halsey, back on Premiership duty after battling cancer, kept his
cards firmly in his pocket despite a number of robust challenges from
Barton and Nolan and the beseeching of the bête noir Barton to produce a
caution when one free-kick went Newcastle's way. Unlike last week
when Rio Ferdinand was there to reprimand Rafael for waving an imaginary
card, nobody in black and white stripes was brave enough to do the same
to Barton. But such petty behaviour
should not detract from what was an exciting game and one which, if
Barton was half as good at passing as he was at kicking players, would
have been settled in the Magpies favour just before Tottenham nicked a
late equaliser.
Spurs dominated the first half and the
only thing missing from the display was a goal, as we sometimes
over-elaborated once we got near the Newcastle penalty area. With
Defoe playing up front on his own, he sometimes got out-numbered by
Newcastle defenders and it was hard for him to make himself available to
receive the out ball from the defence. But Luka Modric's running
with the ball and Rafael van der Vaart's movement gave the home back
four a few problems. Gareth Bale had been pushed back to left back
in Assou-Ekotto's absence and Steven Pienaar made his debut in front of
him in midfield, where he had a solid game.
Tottenham kicked off the first half and
were comfortable in possession, with Newcastle often dropping off deep,
leaving little space to play in and around their box and this became
even more crowded once they had scored in the second half and decided to
try and eek out a 1-0 win.
Within three minutes, Spurs had put
together a move that went from one end to the other with Carlo Cudicini
(standing in for shoulder injury victim Heurelho Gomes) rolling the ball
out to Aaron Lennon and the little winger raced through the middle of
the pitch to play the ball up to Jermain Defoe. The striker took a
touch that took him past Coliccini, but took him a little wide right and
he got his shot off early, but across Harper and wide of the keeper's
right hand post.
Ten minutes into the game, things looked
bad for Spurs as Gareth Bale started to limp after a heavy tackle and it
wasn't long before he had to be replaced buy Sebastien Bassong at left
back. Not a natural position for Seb, but he put in a good
performance there.
Sours were working some openings, with
Defoe having a shot well saved by Harper after being put in by Modric
and a move from side to side of the pitch, ending with van der Vaart
shooting from outside the box, but his effort had all the sting taken
out of it by Williamson's block. Newcastle had a spell of chances,
as I wouldn't really call it pressure, but three opportunities came
their way in fifteen minutes in the middle of the half. Luckily
for Spurs, two of them fell to the dreadful Shola Ameobi. He seems
to think that you have to take the leather off the ball when you shoot
and the first on 16 minutes saw him win an initial header on to Best and
get the ball back form his strike partner, only to smash it over the top
when he should really have got an effort on target. While Spurs
were having to deal with crosses from Guttierez, who was giving Alan
Hutton a torrid time, it was the long ball that was giving the defence
more problems. One was headed straight up in the air by Michael
Dawson and Ameobi was there to hit another shot hard, but too high.
The closest United came to scoring in the
first half was when a Guttierez cross was mis-judged by Cudicini and he
got underneath it, just getting a slight touch before it went to Best at
the far post. The forward was stretching for the ball as he
challenged for it with Bassong, but managed to get a foot to it and the
ball bounced back down from the crossbar, much to Tottenham's relief.
In the 37th minute, Pienaar had a good
chance to open his scoring account for the club, when a passage of
passing with Lennon and Modric involved, drew players to Luka and made
space for the new signing. Unfortunately, from just inside the
left hand corner of the penalty area, he curled his shot too far wide
and if it had been on target, Harper would not have reached it.
van der Vaart went close with a similar effort soon after and the best
opportunity Spurs had was in added time at the end of the first half,
when Pienaar linked with Rafael, who neatly touched the ball into the
path of Defoe running beyond him and as he shaped to shoot, Harper had
raced out to shut him down and blocked the attempt.
so, no score at the interval, but the
home fans had been subdued by the way Spurs were dictating most of the
play, with even little effort put into their booing of former Newcastle
players Jenas and Bassong. They got a bit excited three minutes in
when Best got on the end of Guttierez's near post cross, but he couldn't
wrap his head around it enough and it went wide. A weak Ameobi
header caused Cudicini no problems and at the other end, a lot of passes
created a shooting opportunity for Jenas, who drilled his shot low, but
a yard or so wide to the left of the goal, then Jenas returned the
favour for van der Vaart to go close with a shot.
Then, out of nothing really, Newcastle
scored in the 59th minute. A cross penalty area ball picked out
Coloccini on the left side of the box, with Hutton slightly standing off
him. The Newcastle defender took the ball down and struck his shot
across Cudicini into the bottom corner of the goal to give the home
aside the lead. It was a little against the run of play, but the
sitting off players had cost Spurs and they needed to get something from
this match.
Spurs almost hit back within five
minutes, as Lennon and Pienaar worked a good opening and the little
winger fizzed a low shot on goal that Harper got down to and tipped wide.
Within a couple of minutes, it was Cudicini who was in action when he
rushed out to block Lovenkrands as he ran through onto Barton's pass
through the middle of the Spurs defence. In the 72nd minute, he
was making an even better stop. He was probably surprised that Ameobi
got one on target, as he swung at the ball and it looked
like it would get past him, but the Italian keeper dived up to his
right, getting a good hand on the ball to take it wide of the goal.
That was in the 69th minute and in the
74th the same striker should have done better when he got on the end of
a Barton corner, but he could only get a touch with his head that took
the ball wide.
Spurs were getting to the last quarter of
an hour and decided that they had to go for it. And it nearly paid
off, when a shot from Luka Modric from the edge of the box, after he was
played in by Lennon, shuddered the
crossbar with Harper beaten. Pienaar made way for Kranjcar after
suffering a bout of cramp and the Croat produced some problems for the
Newcastle defence as he ran at them, but Spurs were leaving space at the
back. Lovenkrands' pace was introduced to make chances at the
right end for Newcastle and he played in Barton, but his lack of
accuracy saw him put his shot wide and then Ranger came on for the
disappointingly useless Ameobi and almost unlocked the Spurs defence
with his first touches. Taking the ball wide on the left, he
squirmed past Dawson and from a tight angle shot across Cudicini, with
the ball missing the goal at the far post by inches.
But, then Tottenham's attacking tactics
paid off. With the game ticking into four minutes of added time,
Crouch won a long ball with his head and it dropped to Defoe, who
knocked it to his left, where Aaron Lennon was waiting. The winger
took the ball and ran at Danny Simpson, cutting inside to beat two
defenders and the keeper with his low shot into the bottom right hand
corner of Harper's goal for an equaliser. It was a well-taken goal
and Aaron's move to the left wing paid off even though the full back
might have done better to stop him coming inside.
And it was Tottenham who were pressing
for a winner towards the end of the four minutes, with Lennon getting
past Simpson on the outside and crossing just a bit too deep for Crouch,
with the ball being picked up by Hutton and his cross was caught be
Harper.
It was an intriguing game and one which
Tottenham found it hard to break through in, with the massed ranks of
black and white striped shorts between them and the goal. But they
kept plugging away and salvaged a point from a losing position once
more, although the need to turn possession into goals is something the
team will need to realise if they are to make any further progress up
the table. But not many teams find
it easy here. Newcastle play a different way at home against us
than they would do against the likes of Blackpool, who won here
convincingly. And that is part of
the price we have to pay for relative success.
Isaac Gregory |
Newcastle
United
(Away)
