Shaky Spurs take slim advantage from Lane to Lane

Kick off was delayed tonight until 8 which gave us all an extra 15 minutes to muse on the news that Adebayor was starting up front, but even more news worthy, he was captain for the night. With Lloris not starting and Kaboul seemingly on his way out of White Hart Lane, Adebayor is vice captain, so although he would be the choice of the manager, I think it is fair to say that most of us were a little shocked at the news.
What was even more confusing was that Kane was played in a deeper, number ten, role to accommodate the man everybody loves to hate.

Sheffield United are not setting the world alight in league one, or as I still call it, division three, but in the cups they have been giving premier league teams nightmares last season and this with Southampton and QPR amongst the notable scalps already taken.
It was therefore with little surprise that the Blades came out of the blocks at speed, pressing Spurs and giving us no time to settle on the ball. Spurs had the majority of the possession but failed to do. anything with it and you could really feel the frustration building within White Hart Lane.

The first major talking point came when Adebayor clashed with a United player and caught him with his arm. Immediately the press box was filled with animation as they saw a headline building, but the incident was not as bad as it looked, although red cards have been given for less. Adebayor trotted away with just a yellow card to his name and to be honest, that was about the only incident of any note that he was involved in.

For all of United's hard work, the best chance of the half fell to Spurs when a whipped free kick was met by Eric Dier who headed toward goal only for the keeper to pull off a wonderful save and keep the scores at nil - nil.

One of the most worrying aspects of the first half for Spurs was the constant battle between Campbell Ryce and Ben Davies. Davies was run ragged and it looked like the Blades man was the player in the higher division. Davies was sluggish and simply could not keep up with him. Fortunately for Spurs, Campbell Ryce reminds me of Franz Carr who played in the early nineties for Forest. Fast and pacy, but with no end product and he didn't create enough to truly worry the Spurs defence.

As the players came out for the second half, I was surprised to see no changes from the Spurs manager, and as United again started at pace, it was in the 65th minute that changes came. Firstly, Adebayor was taken off and replaced by Soldado. Adebayor was roundly booed by much of the support and I have to say that was wrong. I am not a fan of Adebayor and his performance tonight was poor, but I can't agree with booing players as they are taken off. If you need to do that, wait until after the game has finished.

Putting that to one side though, it was Soldado who was involved in our winning goal. A floated ball to the back post was beautifully controlled by Soldado and Jay McEveley misjudged the ball and clearly handballed giving Spurs the chance to take the lead.
It was Andros Townsend who stepped up and scored a similar penalty to the one that he netted on New Year's Day against Chelsea at the Lane.

Spurs tried to press after that goal and United did start to tire, but they still worked hard and had a few half chances before the game was over.

I feel that the manager got the starting line up wrong tonight and we had Kane , Eriksen and Townsend all bumping into each other in the middle of the park, all to accommodate Adebayor.

I said in the lead up to this game that we need to take a two or even three goal advantage to their lane and we lacked enough creativity to do that tonight.

The fact is that we do have the advantage and we now need an early goal to settle us at Bramall Lane and take us through to Wembley. Going out at this stage to third division opposition is simply unacceptable.

I must give credit though to United as they worked their socks off tonight and gave us a game, but we did make it easy for them with poor passing and a lack of speed.

Let's get through to the next round of the FA cup at the weekend and then go to Sheffield and book our first of 2 visits to Wembley this season.

As ever, Come on you Spurs and Spurs ARE on their way to Wembley!!!

 

Agree about the starting line up, kane should have started as our attacking spearhead, hes been terrific of late so why change it. If we'd scored a hatfull from open play before the kane factor took effect then the line up could have been justified but thats simply not the case. Expect another tight game in Sheffield. Coys.

 

Good review. When did Spurs have an easy win last time? Half season ago trashing QPR? "Reeling yet wheeling'" must be Spurs logo this season. And not only this one.
I think the game at Bramall Lane will be less tight, Blades must open up at home.