Blackburn Rovers (Home) 28.10.2007

With Ramos in the stands tomorrow, hopefully the team will be out to impress the new boss, as they had stopped playing for the outgoing one.  Blackburn Rovers are one of those sides we rarely do well against, but Juande will need to start instilling a bit more bite in the team if they are to move forward and therefore, the missing players will be ones who might have made a big difference.

Having injuries throughout the team except up front, Spurs will be patched up and will need to make sure they do not give Rovers the space to play, as they have players who can cause damage to our hopes of resurrecting some sort of form.  Benni McCarthy has pace, strength and an unerring knack for scoring a goal out of nothing, so Michael Dawson will need to be tight to him, while Morten Gamst Pedersen’s speed down the line and his accurate crossing and shooting will cause the Tottenham defence some worries, if he is allowed into the game.  Roque Santa Cruz has proved in a short time in the Premier League that he is a goal-scorer who needs to be watched carefully, so his ability to drop off the back four will require someone to go with him, thus perhaps exposing our zonal marking system.

With the return of the annoying Robbie Savage, Blackburn have a player who is a “bits and pieces” midfielder, but he has the frustrating ability to break up moves and Spurs might need to make sure he is by-passed to get onto the Blackburn back four.  Alongside him in midfield is a player who we always make look good – Tugay.  Slow and old, he has been given too much time on the ball and he can pass well to cut open a defence, so Spurs will need to make sure someone shuts him down quickly to reduce his effectiveness.

At the back, Samba is a huge presence and Berbatov might find anything played up to him in the air will be won by the gargantuan centre half, but there could be some joy for Lennon, who looks back to form, as he will be up against Stephen Warnock, who is not blessed with the same sort of pace as Aaron.  It will be interesting to see who Clive Allen picks up front with Dimitar, as I feel a muscular presence may be the best bet and Darren Bent could play alongside the Bulgarian.

With all the turmoil over the last week or so, I am not too hopeful of getting anything out of this match, as Blackburn are playing pretty well at the moment, but I hope that the players show some pride and show that they can turn things around before Ramos takes control of the team.  A point might be the most we come out of the game with though …

PREDICTION : –   Tottenham  1   Blackburn Rovers  1

For more information on the opponents and their history, including full result history of matches between the two teams, click here.

Blackburn worked hard in the first half and their movement and passing had Tottenham struggling after easing to a win over Charlton Athletic just three days before.  With Spurs having problems putting passes together and the strength of Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts up front, it was a half when they fought to keep in the game.  Rovers displayed their normal physical approach allied with time wasting that started as early as the eighth minute.  In my opinion, they really are one of the most objectionable sides in the Premiership.

Having said that, you had to admire their first half display.  The goal came when Tottenham did not close down Pedersen on the left wing and his far post cross saw Ledley King underneath it and Anthony Gardner was too far off McCarthy, who found the space to head back across Robinson and into the other side of the goal to give Rovers a 32nd minute lead.  Before that Pedersen played a corner short to Roberts and hit the return pass low, but well wide of the goal as he cut in from the right.  Interestingly, a couple of Blackburn players tried too hard to foul Spurs men and ended up coming off worse.  Berbatov showed the way to avoid such challenges, as he performed a quick drag-back to leave Tugay heading in the wrong direction !!  However, Mokoena picked up a yellow card (and should have had a possible two more in the match) for a bad tackle from behind on Malbranque, which ended the Frenchman’s involvement in the game.  After Steed had limped on for a number of minutes on came Hossam Ghaly for a somewhat tepid cameo.

From the ensuing free-kick, Tottenham played a highly complex free-kick, which ended up with Friedel grabbing the ball high under his crossbar after a couple of passes saw Pascal Chimbonda get in behind the defence, but only volley it high into the danger area.  When Spurs did open up a good chance, Defoe’s far post cross from the right found Anthony Gardner coming in and his stooping header did not carry enough power to threaten Friedel’s goal.  Another headed opportunity to Chimbonda ended up straight at the American keeper too.

Then came the away goal and Roberts hit a low shot that our Robbo got down to well on a wet surface, while some diffident defending let them in again and McCarthy’s shot had to be blocked by Ledley.  As crosses started to come into the goalmouth, Dawson and King headed them out and Robinson had to come for one and chose to punch, while taking Samba out with him.  As in similar games, Spurs failed to get Lennon into the game and he looked unwilling to get stuck in and was muscled out of a few runs.  Ghaly’s passes were lacksidaisical and under-weighted, leaving him the object of some derision from the crowd.  More of which was to come.  However, he did manage to hit the target with Tottenham’s best chance when a ball was blocked and flew into the air, allowing him to volley it at goal, making Friedel save.  Too often, the Egyptian and others tried to play a difficult ball over the middle of the defence, but on a wet pitch, there was no hope of getting any back-spin on the ball.

The appearance of Nayim in the half-time break brought shouts of “Nayim from the halfway line” as he talked about his time at Spurs and that goal against Arsenal.  Last time he caused such a stir at the Lane was when the cameras focused on him when we were playing Bolton one Christmas with the chance to go fourth in the table.  With fifth possibly at stake on this and Sunday’s results, it was a case of deja vu.

Into the second half, Tottenham had to press more and whether Blackburn ran out of steam or whether it was just them being pushed back, Tottenham enjoyed more territorial domination and used the flanks a lot more.  Aaron cut inside from the left to hit a low shot that Samba blocked and Ghaly nearly played in Defoe, but he was given offside.  With the pressure building, Rovers got reckless with some of their challenges and when Pedersen brought Defoe down as he prepared to shoot, he got a yellow card and Spurs got a free-kick.  As Berba shaped up to take it, we all hoped he would reproduce the West Ham dead ball, but Friedel managed to push it up and then grab the dropping ball.

Having played a couple more directionless balls and not shown much effort to gat back and win the ball, Martin Jol decided that Robbie Keane was the man to spark a revival for Tottenham, at the expense of Ghaly.  The Egyptian trudged towards the dug-out and then produced his most incisive piece of action of the night when he ripped off his shirt and threw it onto the running track.  He went off down the tunnel, with Jol standing stonily looking in the opposite direction and the half-naked sight of his back will probably be the last we see of Ghaly, as sections of the crowd sang “You’re not fit to wear the shirt.”.

It almost looked a bad move as a long free-kick to the far post saw Samba creep in behind Gardner on the left to head against the bar from a narrow angle.  Luckily for Spurs, the ball bounced to a place where no Blackburn player strayed.  Pedersen also fizzed a low cross into the Spurs goalmouth, but there was again no Rover making his way into that zone.  For Spurs, it was fortunate, which was borne out a minute or two later, when the equaliser came.  Tainio was instrumental in winning the ball and Keane opened up the defence with a ball into Berbatov on the right side of the box.  He made a yard by shimmying past the defender and struck a low shot from a tight angle, which Friedel could only parry as it shot off the wet turf, leaving Defoe sniffing it out and the easy task of putting it into an empty net.

With 24 minutes left, Tottenham started to go for the winner.  Michael Dawson made his way into the opposing penalty area and headed one and shot one wide, while Robbie Keane was making inroads into the Blackburn area.  He dinked a neat pass through to Defoe and as Friedel came out to him, he took the ball away and tried to set up Dimitar, but he was crowded out.  It did leave Rovers with the chance to break and Pedersen had two chances with a volley that he tried to replicate van Basten’s European Championship final goal, but hit the West Stand instead, then he was denied by Chimbonda’s header as he came in behind the Spurs right back.

As the game moved into added time, there was a frantic finale.  Chimbonda moved forward on the right, cut inside and played Robbie Keane in.  Standing inside the area, he turned unmarked and struck a shot past the Blackburn keeper, only to see it hit the post full on and bounce back out into Friedel’s arms.  It was definitely a case of if only !!

With seconds remaining, Jason Roberts made a rash tackle on Defoe from behind and earned a yellow card.  He kicked the ball away, but Rob Styles did nothing about that (as he had failed to do from the early stages when the red shirted visitors did that on regular occasions).  As the wall lined up, I am not sure if Roberts knocked the ball away again or whether he said something out of turn, but either way, it was an ill-advised thing to do, as the yellow came out again for the second time in a few seconds and was followed by a red card.

Arguments ensued, so when the time came for Berbatov to take the free-kick, the moment had gone and the ball floated over the top and with it the chance to seal a win.

With both sides hitting the woodwork and having the best of a half each, perhaps a draw was the fair result and it keeps the interest going into the final game.

With the crowd taking the total number of fans through the turnstiles at White Hart Lane past the one million mark, it will take a few more on Sunday to see if the team can make it back into the UEFA Cup.  With 102 goals scored this season, we might need a few more on Sunday too.

Burton Coggles.

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Maybe as Spurs fans we get the board we deserve.

Danny Danton.