Spurs Vs Blackburn
Blackburn came to visit White Hart Lane yesterday and with them returned former Spurs Forum Player of The Year Paul Robinson. His first return since leaving us in the summer saw him return to cheers from the crowd at his every touch of the ball.
His first significant touch was to pick the ball out of the back of his own net however which led to the biggest cheer of the whole game. The first and only goal of the game scored by Roman Pavlyuchenko was a result of a a fantastic run from Man of the Match Aaron Lennon. Lennon put in his best performance of the season out on the right wing and tortured Rover right back Martin Olsson to the point of him receiving two yellow cards and leaving the field early. While Bentley was stuck out on the left wing spurs were stuck with Jermain Jenas in the middle. While some of the vice-captains runs were exciting, they lacked any end product.
A ten man Rovers went from 4-4-2 to 4-4-1 at half time with the substitution of striker Benni McArthy and the sending off of Olsson. But were lucky not to slip to 3-4-1 with Ooijer joining his team mate in the second half. Ooijer swiped Bentley’s legs away near the penalty box to earn a yellow card, and ‘Arry saw this as a chance to earn an extra man’s advantage so put Lennon onto the left hoping he could give Ooijer similar treatment to that which saw Olsson receive his two bookings. This did not prove fruitful with Ooijer staying closer to Lennon and thus not giving him the luxury of space with which to draw the foul, and when Bentley was eventually subbed for O’Hara Lennon switched back to the right wing.
Late on a minor scuffle broke out when Jenas fouled near the halfway line, his leg trapped he pulled it free only to be confronted by Simpson. With refferee Howard Webb only three feet away both players could have come off worse than a booking.
Man of the Match - Aaron Lennon, thrived on the space that Blackburn allowed him to have, and ran thier defence ragged as a result.
Posted: November 24th, 2008 under News.
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The draw for the group stage of the UEFA cup has been drawn. Spurs face Spartak Moscow, Udinese, Dinamo Zagreb and NEC Nijmegen in Group D.