Tottenham Hotspur   3    Wigan Athletic   1      (Half-time score : 2-1)

Unused subs: 
Cerny
Lee
Murphy
Davids

Kirkland

Wright (Hall 67)
Boyce
Jackson
Baines (c)

Kilbane (Cotterill 78)
Scharner
Skoko
Teale (Heskey, 28)

Camara
McCulloch

Unused subs: 
Pollitt
Landzaat

Defoe 43
Berbatov 44
Lennon 90

Camara 25

    
Zokora (dissent) 58
Dawson (foul)  71 

 

    
Boyce (foul)  8
Baines (kicking ball away)  33
Heskey (foul)  56
Skoko (foul)  77

Having started slowly, but they could still have been ahead, Spurs let Wigan in for a soft goal.  A long cross from the right was headed down into the heart of the penalty area by Lee McCulloch, rising above Pascal Chimbonda, leaving striker Henri Camara time to size up where he wanted to put his shot and leaving Paul Robinson with little chance of stopping it.  This was 25 minutes into the match and Tottenham had enough openings to be at least a couple of goals to the good before then.

In the opening exchanges, Lennon lifted the ball over the defenders in front of him and it got to Berbatov at the far post, where he managed to get a toe to the ball and get it going at goal, but Kirkland was there to take the ball easily in his chest.  WIgan hit straight back with Camara's pace taking him away from the Tottenham defence and his shot was well held by Robbo.

Berbatov's early movement was causing problems for the visitors and he put in some tempting balls across the face of the goal, but most went begging.  Chimbonda got clattered by Kilbane's forearm when heading away a dangerous cross aimed at the former Everton winger.  This was just before the Wigan goal came.

Then Spurs hit back, with Malbranque hitting a low effort that was deflected and forced Kirkland to push the ball aside, only for Defoe to seize on it and looked likely to score.  However, England's Number Four (as Kirkland was christened by the Park Lane) was quick enough to get up and block the Spurs striker's shot.  Malbranque also had another chance when Lennon pulled the ball back to him and he switched it to his left foot before slicing it well wide with a Wigan defender in close attendance and Steed appealing to the ref that he was too close.

Today's referee is very few people's favourite down N17 way in Mark Clattenburg.  His early booking of Boyce for a foul set a tone of disquiet as he had little grasp of what was going on in the game.  When he booked Baines for a foul on Lennon, it looked like he was more concerned about the kicking away of the ball.  A late shot blocked from Zokora left him pointing for a goal-kick while his assistant signalled a corner, which he had to cede to.  With Heskey already having been walking a tightrope, with a very late tackle on Ledley, his flailing elbow on Dawson was similar to that of Ghaly's last week at Blackburn for which the Spurs midfielder saw red.  So this week ... a yellow.  His bizarre booking of Zokora who was hurt in a crunching challenge with Heskey left me perplexed and I can only think it was because he said something to the official.  But when a man can't get a decision right like a goal when the ball is substantially in the back of the net, what respect can you have for him ??

With the wet surface, you would hope that the shooting might have been on the ground to gain some speed off the turf, but when given a shooting opportunity came along, Huddlestone swerved a long range effort, but couldn't keep it down and the ball went over the top with Kirkland having it covered.  That was in the 41st minute, with the decisive moment in the game following 120 seconds later. 

Berbatov played Defoe in on the left hand corner of the penalty area.  With Boyce tight behind him, Jermain performed a skillful little turn to leave the defender standing and as Kirkland came out, he aimed his shot over him and high into the roof of the net.  It was Defoe at his best and showed he can still be a deadly predator in the area.  He enjoyed his goal with a corner flag goal celebration.

It had looked as thought Wigan would go into the break 1-0 up, but at 1-1 things would look brighter for Spurs.  However, it was even brighter a minute later, as Benoit Assou-Ekotto played a ball into the same channel for Berbatov and he turned Matt Jackson easily and with David Wright trying to tap his ankles as he bore down on Kirkland, the Bulgarian kept his cool and placed his shot past the keeper and into the top right hand corner just under the bar.  It was the finish of a master goal-scorer and the crowd went wild with excitement with the way things had been turned around so quickly.

There was still time for Paul Scharner to get past Assou-Ekotto and take a 30 yard pot shot that caused Robinson to plunge to his right to block and grab at the second attempt.  The whistle came at just the right time and Spurs were on a high going into the break and Wigan must have been highly deflated.

Spurs appeared to have killed off any ambition that the Lactics might have had with the two goal burst.  They started to knock the ball about comfortably and with Huddlestone and Zokora in midfield providing a nice mix of strength, passing and running, the combative Wigan engine room foundered on their tackles.  Chimbonda had been roundly booed every time he touched the ball, but was determined to be on the winning side.  When he clashed with Camara late in the game, he showed the Wigan fans that Spurs were winning 2-1, but at the end, he was pulled away from going to that corner of the ground to celebrate the win by Ledley King.  The French full back produced a neat chip down the right wing, which held up despite the wet grass and provided a chance for Berbatov to fire a low cross into the goalmouth.  With no Tottenham player nearby, Jackson got a foot to it on the stretch and was relieved to see Kirkland grab the ball before it entered the net.

With some silky passing, Spurs were opening up Athletic easily.  Berbatov produced some good moves to leave his marker and played the ball inside to Lennon, who played in Defoe, who tried to hit the shot too hard and it flew over the goal.  Emile Heskey had been press-ganged into service and his blundering bulk regularly crashed into Michael Dawson and when the Spurs centre half ended up on the floor after an aerial challenge, we expected to play out the game against ten men, but not with Clattenburg in charge.  Dawson had to extract his own justice and waited until Heskey was by the touchline and went through him, earning himself a yellow card.

While Wigan hadn't given up, their shooting opportunities were limited and ended up wild.  Camara hit a shot across the face of goal, McCulloch hit one over the bar and then Leighton Baines, the England Under-21 forward really hit one over the bar and almost struck the screen of the Jumbotron !!  He had always wanted one of his shots on the big screen !!  The closest they came was a Heskey header that went over from a free-kick.

At the other end, Keane curled an effort inches wide of Kirkland's far post after running at the defence and right at the death Aaron Lennon put the game beyond doubt.  Assou-Ekotto played the ball down the line to the impressive Malbranque, who set Berbatov down the line.  He beat his man and produced a pass of true class for Lennon to run onto and under challenge, he put his left-foot shot past the keeper to make it 3-1.

It was a professional performance by Spurs after a sloppy start, but once more it begs the question why we can play like this at home, but struggle away so often.  It is one that Martin Jol needs to look at and if we can get that right, we can move on four fronts.