Newcash United (home) 03.04.2022

Colours : – 

(worn with gold shorts and black side panel; gold socks with black turnover)

With two consecutive wins, the only change to Tottenham’s team was Emerson Royal coming in at right wing-back, with Matt Doherty switching sides.  The stability of a settled side is paying dividends, with players understanding their roles.  However, in the first half, the game was so slow, with neither side playing with any tempo.  Tottenham had problems clearing the ball in the first five minutes, but the Magpies had no player capable of making anything from that.  They almost carved out an opportunity when Willock found his way past Davies and Dier as the ball dropped from height, but as he shaped to shoot, Cristian Romero came from nowhere to produce a wonderful block that prevented any threat on the goal.  Newcash’s most dangerous player fancied a lie down far too often, spending a lot of time perfecting his Tom Daley impression, with Kane getting booked for an innocuous bump that sent the Frenchman flying to the turf.  It was a little ironic that such a foul was declared worthy of a booking, as many others of a similar (or worse) were allowed to pass without the same punishment. 

Consequently, the lack of pace in the game produced few memorable moments.  Dier won a near post header from a corner, but was off target with it, Kane had a shot that he dragged wide of the goal when he didn’t connect with it cleanly and Dier took a free-kick 25 yards out when Joelinton crudely brought down Kulusevski as he broke forward, but he put it a yard wide.  We were treated to the hilarious sight of the tallest man in the world – Dan Burn – bending down almost to ground level to head a corner back into the goalmouth and a series of crosses into the Spurs area were headed clear.  When Dejan got forward, he crossed to the far post where Pierre Hojbjerg won the ball in the air, but put his header over the top and despite claims it came off Schar for a corner, they fell on deaf ears.

When Son was the wrong side of Willock when he got the ball on the left side of the D, his challenge from behind brought him down and a free-kick was given.  It looked as though Newcash players were closer than a metre from the Spurs wall, but Atkinson didn’t do anything about it and Schar stepped up to fire into the gap that they left when they peeled away, with Hugo getting a hand to it and should really have done better than helping it on its way into the net.  Without threatening at all, the visiting Toon side had taken the lead and discontent rained down from some parts of the stadium after VAR looked at the goal for a possible handball, but it never looked likely that it would be disallowed.

It took a while for the celebrating Newcash players in front of their own fans and the tired ones at the other end who couldn’t make it back there to regroup for the kick off, so when play restarted, Spurs looked to get back in it and Son broke into the box and Manquillo took the ball away from him at the cost of a corner.  Romero’s header was blocked and the ball dropped to Dier at the near post, with it being played back out to our Korean, who whipped in a cross from the left that Ben Davies got a glancing header to and it flashed past Dubravka for an equaliser just four and a bit minutes after going behind.  It was a really good header and an even better cross that made the goal.

As the game went into added time, Bentancur kicked the ball off Saint-Maximin to give the visitors a throw in just inside their own half, but the Newcash winger took exception and pushed Rodrigo in the chest before putting his head in, with people gathering around and Joelinton pushed Bentancur to the ground.  Lots of others got involved and Atkinson did little to calm things down, waiting until the players had sorted the melee out before booking the three main participants in the incident.

It appeared that Antonio Conte had done his work in the interval, as Spurs looked sharp from the start of the second half.  So much so that Burn felt it necessary to hack Harry Kane within a minute of the kick off.  The free-kick ended up with their keeper, but the next attack started with Schar’s intended cross-field pass from the right side being intercepted by Kulusevski in the centre-circle inside the Spurs half.  The ball went forward to Kane, who held off Burn and with Newcash players running away from him, he had space to play a cross into the middle of the penalty box.  Son was there but missed getting a touch to it and with Manquillo sleeping at the far post, Doherty made a determined run behind him and headed down into the ground and past Dubravka while almost at ground level himself.  The usual VAR looked at the goal in case Son had touched it thus putting Doherty offside, but the goal was given and we could all celebrate again, but two minute after the break. 

Tottenham were a little slack, as straight from the re-start, Newcash played a long ball forward for Wood to use his sole attribute in muscling people off the ball and his shot from the edge of the box went a few feet wide of Lloris’ left hand post.  It was a warning that needed to be heeded as only being a goal ahead is a treacherous lead, as the Magpies had found out.  Another moment of anxiety came when a long ball into the left side of the Spurs box brought Hugo off his line, but he didn’t get there and Joelinton took the ball wide and crossed into the box, but there was nobody ina  black shirt who was committed to getting to it and Emerson Royal dealt with the cross before being fouled.

Spurs played the ball out form the back with Dier feeding Hojbjerg, who moved the ball to Kulusevski.  He laid the ball inside to Kane, who lifted the ball back to him over the retreating Burn and his run ended with a cross into the area, where it looked as though Doherty and Son might get in each other’s way, but the wing-back stood aside for Sonny to calmly kill the ball and then kill the game by driving it to the keeper’s right and into the net from eight yards out.  Newcash’s defence was strung out and the gaps were being filled by white shirts, with the resulting goals putting the chances away.  

Atkinson bottled a second yellow card for Joelinton when he bundled Kane over with no attempt to get the ball, when he gave one for Harry’s softer foul earlier and the Newcash man was substituted soon after as the management must have feared that he would have been sent off sooner or later.  When Newcash got corners, it was surprising they didn’t make more of them, with Burn the obvious Target, but often Targett’s delivery was over-cooked.  In the midst of the Spurs penalty area, Cristina Romero showed great presence to control the ball and calmly play the ball out and was involved twice more as the ball was passed around with him popping up in the Newcash area, before the ball was passed back and across to the left wing.  Doherty ran forward into the space that Son played a pass into, played the ball inside to Kulusevski, who returned it to him and he shrugged off a weak challenge from newly introduced Jacob Murphy, so he was able to check onto his right foot to provide a dink to the near post.  It may have taken a flick off Schar on it’s way, but it found Royal who stretched out a leg to guide a volley in past Dubravka’s right hand coming off the post in the process.  Targett was tugging at his shirt, but wasn’t strong enough to prevent the fourth goal going past his keeper after a fifteen pass move.

There was little resistance now from a team whose had had gone and most of their fans had followed the players’ example by leaving big gaps in the away section seating and Spurs eased forward.  Emerson produced a cheeky dragging of the ball behind him to return it to Harry Kane and put him into space in his own half, digging out a diagonal pass to Son 50 yards ahead of him.  A touch took the ball down, but taking it slightly to the left of the D, his shot from just inside the box was dragged wide of the far post by a couple of feet.  Normally the ball would be nestling in the net from such positions, but it mattered little in the long run.

While Newcastle had Willock’s header land on the roof of the Spurs goal netting following a move when Guimaraes fended off Hojbjerg by putting his hand in his face, but their players had given up long before.  Murphy should have had fresh legs, but when Doherty ran away from him, he looked as though he was running in treacle and then Son burst forward with Shelvey unable to keep up with him (not even to foul him as he as been seen to do in the past), allowing him to square to Harry Winks who hit s shot from outside the box that just didn’t dip enough and went a foot over the bar.

When Dier was quicker to Saint-Maximin’s mis-control than the Newcash striker, he knocked the ball on to Son, who passed to Lucas Moura who had just come on with Steven Bergwijn for Kulusevski and Royal respectively.  Burn couldn’t live with the Brazilian’s pace, so had a hand on his shoulder to pull him back and tripped him too, but not before he made moved the ball forward for Stevie to be clear with only Dubravka to beat with defenders trailing behind him.  He slide the ball to the keeper’s right to find the bottom corner of the net and make it 5-1.  Even with Lascelles having come on for Wood, it still couldn’t provide any additional protection to their goal.

Immediately after, Bergwijn had another chance and slammed a shot at goal, but it flew over the top.  One thing missing from the game was a Harry Kane goal and he was urged to shoot from 20 yards out as the game came to a close, but he missed the target by a couple of feet.

The visiting players went over to their fans at the end of the match.  Well, what was left of them, but they kept a safe distance away from the edge of the pitch.  On this performance, it was hard to see how they hadn’t conceded more than one goal in any of their previous 11 matches.  Aside from Everton, they were the worst team to come to the THS in my opinion, with a lack of adventure in trying to earn a point in the first half to a shambolic defensive display in the second.  It just goes to show that however much money you have you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.  And if I was Eddie Howe, I wouldn’t be setting down roots in the North-East.

From Tottenham’s point of view, they seem to be getting Conte’s messages and taking them on board, with an aggressive performance not to the liking of some of the Newcash players, who started getting niggly.  That brought about some crunchingly fair tackled on them from the likes of Romero, Dier and Davies as they showed that they meant business.  There is a new steely attitude that is running through the team.  Going a goal down might have spelled defeat, but from the win-lose-win-lose  of recent weeks, three wins on the bounce have seen Spurs in with a chance of a top four finish.  There’s no guarantee in getting maximum points from our remaining games, but the same goes for the other teams challenging for the place that would give Champions League competition for next season.  

Peter Hill

Ben Davies scores his first home goal.