| A weird and wonderful experience was
awaiting those who trekked over to East London for this friendly against
Leyton Orient by a Spurs XI.
The entertainment started as soon as I entered through
the turnstiles. Either they are making the tickets out of some
super-strong material or the East End is not as full of tough people as
when I was brought up there, as the girl behind the mesh wiring had
great difficulty tearing the stub off my ticket and two people got
through on the other turnstile while she was struggling with the piece
of thin card !!
Having been told that programmes were on sale just
inside the turnstiles, I went over to the old fella with them and asked
how much. "£3," he said, "but I haven't got any change."
Great. Half an hour before kick off and all his change had been
used up. Whether this is a ruse to make you buy something from
their food kiosk to get change and further fund the ailing League One
club I don't know. Anyway, I went over to buy the cheapest
thing they had, but the two girls behind the counter did not have change
either and had to start delving around in their purses to find enough
coins to give me back. I know times are hard, but this was a bit
ridiculous.
After buying something from the shop and a couple of
programmes and one for a mate, I felt like I was paying the wages of one
of their players for the season.
A sign of the lack of ticket sales was highlighted
when I got to the top of the stairs and was told you could sit where you
liked. Always a recipe for disaster (in terms of who you were sat
next too or in front of). We were lucky enough to have sensible
people each side, but behind were an Orient supporting father (who swore
like how's your father) and a young son about six, who kept shouting
"Yid Army" and "Come On You Spurs" at the top of his voice throughout
the first half, until they moved away at the break.
You are always warned that these games will contain a
mix of younger players and some fringe first teamers and this certainly
lived up to that billing. But for only £15 you couldn't really
argue ... although from some of the comments I heard some people would
have liked to.
Once inside, the players were already out warming up,
although it was a warm evening. Without the aid of the programme I
probably knew only about three Orient players (as Charlie Daniels, the
former Spurs defender, was missing through injury). Looking at the
Spurs players warming up, there appeared to be the exact make up of the
team that was described above. Almost all of the Under-18 side and
Danny Rose and Adel Taarabt. Dad behind us didn't recognise any of
the Spurs players and told son that Ben Alnwick was in goal.
Mainly because the programme told him he was in the squad and there was
a blonde goalkeeper warming up (Oscar Jansson). Some of the fans
who did not know the players resorted to calling them "Number 9" when
they shouted at them.
Some fans around me were not happy, as perhaps they
were expecting some of the World Cup players returning to training to be
given a run out. But with a prestige friendly against Villareal at
home tomorrow night, it was a little unlikely.
Anyway, the game kicked off in the evening sunlight, with the odd
sight at Brisbane Road of people watching the game from the balconies of
their flats in the corners of the ground, while three people were
hanging out of a window at great height behind the goal to our left.
Andros Townsend later got a ball to hit one of the windows and we
wondered if there would be a spot prize for anyone who got a ball
through one of them !!
Orient started with a strong side out and got into the groove
quickest. David Button showed good handling when he came for a
cross by Scott McGleish, but Spurs hit back with former Orient loanee
Townsend shunning a pass out left to Rose to take a shot at goal that
had the pace taken off it by a deflection and then Adel Taarabt, captain
for the day, hit a snap shot from a free-kick just wide of the goal.
The referee was soon to make the first of a number of bizarre
decisions. A corner on the right wing was taken by Orient and a
flick on at the near post saw Button impeded by having his shirt pulled,
then two Orient players went for the ball in the six yard box, but got
in each others way, leaving the ball to drop for McGleish, whose shot
looked like it had been headed up onto the bar and out by Adam Smith.
Mick Russell (remember that name) had other ideas and pointed to the
spot, indicating that Smith had used a hand to stop the ball on the
line. Button tried to persuade the man in black that he had been
fouled before that, but to no avail. Smith did not even get a
talking to by the ref and Ben Chorley stepped up to beat Button from the
spot and give Orient a 1-0 lead with 16 minutes on the clock.
Spurs tried to get back into the match, with Danny Rose, who was
playing left back, putting in a fine low ball across the six yard box,
but nobody had read it and it flashed harmlessly across goal. But
within a minute Spurs were two down to a good goal from Orient.
The ball was switched to the right back in lots of space and he played a
low ball into Matthew Spring, who played in McGleish, who dinked the
ball over Button as he came to the edge of the box to dive at his feet.
Tottenham had been rocked by the penalty and lost their shape and
focus. They gave the ball away cheaply and were not picking up
their opponents, leaving the tall Alex Revell to match up with Rose, who
he out-jumped easily, beating Button with his header in the 27th minute,
but he did not beat the post, with the ball bouncing off it to be hacked
away. A minute later, the move was repeated with Cox supplying
again, but this time Revell put his header too high and the goal was not
threatened this time. The O's attacks kept coming in this phase of
the game and when Spring played a free kick in to the near post, Revell
got a thin header on it and McGleish slid to meet the ball in the six
yard box, but could not keep his effort down, spooning it over the bar
from close range. So, half an hour gone and Spurs could have been
0-4 down. And it might have been five on 32 minutes when Forbes
rose to meet a Cox free kick and he thudded a header against the post
once more.
Taarabt felt that he was fouled a couple of times and hit the floor
and stayed there. He was not happy and berated the referee when
Orient were handed a cheap free kick. When a foul on Fredericks
was not given and a throw-in to Orient awarded, the Frenchman smashed
the ball into the advertising hoardings. The official called
Fredericks to him and gave him a ticking off (for getting fouled ?),
then as Taarabt would not come to him, he made his way to the centre
circle to speak to the Spurs captain. It became hilarious as
Taarabt must have been gobbing off to him in French and the ref pointed
to the armband (indicating that it didn't matter if he was captain) and
then swept his hands in front of him (indicating he would take no more).
Adel continued to chunter on and gesticulate in a typically Gallic way,
while seeking a chance to take on the whole of the Orient defence again
when he got possession.
In the last five minutes of the half, Spurs pressed forward and Ryan
Mason twice hit shots, one by a long way over the top and the second
just not high enough to get it over Jamie Jones in the home goal.
Just before the half-time whistle, Townsend went close with a curling
effort from the edge of the box that went just wide of Jones' left hand
post.
Four Spurs subs came on after the
interval, with Jansson replacing
Button between the sticks, Durojaiye
coming on for Rose, Jose-Paul Mpoku
for Townsend and England Under-19
midfielder Dean Parrett replacing
Taarabt, who probably got a good
talking to by Sherwood at the break.
The Spurs team must have all been
given instruction about what was
required of them in the second half,
with a quick start ending with Mpoku
pulling the ball back from the left
wing to Jonathan Obika to fire a low
shot that Jones managed to keep out
with his foot. Orient once
more hit the woodwork, with Elliot
Omozusi crossing to see Revell hit
the post from about 10 yards out.
It was a costly miss, as in the 52nd
minute, Obika took the ball into the
box from the right and beating his
man very tight to the dead ball
line, pulled the ball back to Ryan
Mason coming in at the near post to
hit the net and make it 2-1.
Spurs brought on the tall Harry
Kane for the slightly off the pace
Ryan Fredericks and his presence
posed Orient's defence with a
different problem, as most of the
Tottenham side were fairly short.
Obika enjoyed more space and when he
hit a 20 yard shot fizzing just
above the grass, Jones was relieved
to see the ball hitting the boards
behind the goal as it narrowly went
wide.
Orient sub Ryan Jarvis engineered
a yard in the box and he hit a shot
that looked to be going into the
bottom corner, but Calum Butcher got
his leg in the way to deflect the
ball wide and then Dean Cox tried
his luck from outside the box, but
his shot ended up curling just
outside the goal. At the other
end, Dean Parrett played the ball
behind the defence for Harry Kane,
but ex-Spur and substitute keeper
Lee Butcher. raced out to take the
ball just inside his area before the
Tottenham forward could get there
and with twenty minutes left on the
clock, Kane tried to curl a shot
inside the post form the right side
of the box, but put it just too
wide.
The game was getting to the stage
where players had realised that the
ref was not in any sort of control
and there were some cynical trips by
both sides when opponents got away
from them, some "robust" challenges
which would normally bring a
free-kick if not a yellow card,
handballs in any part of the pitch
and pushing which was so obvious, it
was hard to understand how the
officials missed it.
When it got back to the football,
Obika tried to bend a shot in but it
didn't bend enough, but in the 77th
minute, Nathan Byrne, who had a very
good game at the back, found space
on the right wing and his cross was
bent in towards the penalty spot,
with Obika going for the header, but
he either got a very thin contact on
it or missed it altogether, the ball
ending up in the net whatever
happened. It looked to me as
if he had missed it, but being a
striker, he will probably claim the
goal anyway. At 2-2, Spurs
were getting on top, but Orient
still wanted to end with a victory
and Jarvis got a volley to Jimmy
Smith's cross, but it didn't have a
good enough connection to beat
Jansson's sprawling stop low at his
right hand post. With five
minutes to go, the woodwork once
again came to Tottenham's side, when
Jansson got a hand onto Stephen
Dawson's cross and it grazed the
face of the bar before going out for
a corner.
As the game came to what should
have been a peaceful end, Dawkins
was aggressively knocked over when
the ball had gone by Brown and this
prompted a rash of players diving
into tackles, with Adam Smith
catching an Orient player late for
about the fourth time in the second
half and taking a knock in the
process. With a minute left in
the game, it seemed a strange time
to ask for the Spurs defender to be
substituted rather than be sent off,
as surely that should have happened
when he hand-balled it 15 minutes
into the match. The hilarious
end to the game came as a result of
the referee exercising a lack of
control over what had been going on
and leaving players to think they
could get away with what they
wanted.
In the end, the whistle blew on a
2-2 draw, which was a useful work
out for the Under-18s who got some
experience playing against a League
One team, with Orient getting a test
with the start to their season just
ten days away. For the fans,
it was a chance to see some of the
players who might be pushing for a
place in the senior squad, but
seniors and Obika
and Mason apart, the only players
who showed some desire was Smith and
Parrett, while Calum Butcher and
Byrne at the back looked solid
enough to be ones who might make it
should they get a bit more senior
experience in the lower leagues.
marco van hip |
