TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
1 NEWCASH UNITED
2
   
(1) (2)
  Date : –  Saturday 4th January 2025
Kick off : –  12.30
  Competition : – Premier League
Venue : –   Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
  Crowd : –  61,293
  Referee : –  Andrew Madley (Yorkshire) Linesmen : – Mr. Nick Hopton; Mr. Craig Lewis
  Fourth official : – Lewis Smith
  VAR official : –  Chris Kavanagh VAR Assistant : – Sian Massey-Ellis
  Weather : –  Dry, very cold
  Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the Paxton Road end
  Playing time : –   90 + 16 minutes

 

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR NEWCASH UNITED
GOAL-SCORERS
      Solanke  03m 23s  (asst Porro)   Gordon  05m 42s  (asst Guimaraes)
         Isak  37m 17s
  CARDS
    Reguilon (foul on Tonali)  90+9   Burn  (foul on Solanke)  17
         Joelinton  (persistent fouling)  73
         Botman  (foul on Maddison)  80
         Isak  (not leaving the pitch quickly)  86
   
TEAM
40.   Brandon AUSTIN 1.   Martin DUBRAVKA
     
23.   Pedro PORRO  21.   Valentino LIVRAMENTO
6.   Radu DRAGUSIN  (  3.   Sergio REGUILON  46  33.   Dan BURN  
14.   Archie GRAY 4.   Sven BOTMAN   (  25.   Lloyd KELLY  90+2)
24.   Djed SPENCE 20.   Lewis HALL
      
15.   Lucas BERGVALL  (  10.   James MADDISON  62)   39.   Bruno GUIMARAES  (c) 
29.   Pape Matar SARR  (  8.   Yves BISSOUMA  62)   8.   Sandro TONALI
 7.   JOELINTON 
22.   Brennan JOHNSON   
21.   Dejan KULUSEVSKI  (c) 23.   Jacob MURPHY  (  36.   Sean LONGSTAFF  86)
16.   Timo WERNER  (  7.   Heung-Min SON  62)   14.   Alexander ISAK     (  28.   Joe WILLOCK  86)
    10.   Anthony GORDON    (  11.   Harvey BARNES  78)
19.   Dominic SOLANKE      
Substitutes Substitutes
  41.   Alfie WHITEMAN 19.   Odysseas VLACHODIMOS
  48.   Alfie DORRINGTON 2.   Kieran TRIPPIER
  79.   Malachi HARDY 67.   Lewis MILEY
  64.   Callum OLUSESI 18.   William OSULA
  42.   Will LANKSHEAR 24.   Miguel ALMIRON

    = Assist        =  Goal scored       =  Own goal scored

Manager : – Ange Postecoglou Manager : –  Eddie Howe
Kit Supplier : – Nike Kit Supplier : –  adidas
Shirt Sponsor : – AIA Shirt Sponsor : –  Sela
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Kraken Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : –  Noon
Colours : – Colours : – 
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website

 

MATCH REPORT
  With a depleted side due to injury, suspension and a bug that hit the squad, Spurs lost 1-2 to Newcash United at the THS in a match they would have got something out of as Ange said “with all things being equal”.  It was not only that Newcash had a full strength side out, but the inconsistency of the refereeing of the match – for both sides – was appalling.  The fact that Newcash – one of the form teams in the Premier League – were only able to muster four shots on goal against a team with a make-shift defence that after the break comprised four full backs is testament to which team wanted to win the game more.  With all the resources of the the PIF behind the Barcodes, they were playing for throw-ins at the end of the game after having every bit of luck going during the match.

The bug that hit Tottenham meant that Brandon Austin got a long awaited debut as Fraser Forster was unable to play and a number of players had been incapacitated all week, but still had to turn out for this match.  Son was on the bench with Werner starting, which didn’t please sections of the Tottenham support and with Bentancur picking up a one match suspension for five yellow cards, Lucas Bergvall came into the midfield two.

It was a bitterly cold lunch-time kick off with snow predicted as some point during the day, but at least that held off.  It was only a minute before the first Newcash player started rolling around on the floor. Livramento was run into by Lucas Bergvall and the ref waved play on but it took a minute and a half’s treatment before he could manage to be helped off. When play restarted, Spurs own the ball and pressed forward through Werner and Kulusevski to win a corner. It was played short, but straight to Gordon, who was shrugged off it by Udogie and the ball went to Werner to recover possession after he gave the ball away taking the corner. Anyway, we moved the ball around at the back before playing it up through Bergvall and Johnson, who played it back a few yards for Porro to run onto. His first time cross aimed into the box had Botman goal-side of Solanke, but the Spurs striker’s movement took him behind the defender to put a diving header low to Dubravka’s left and put Spurs ahead in the fourth minute.  Botman didn’t have a clue where Solanke was and if he was concentrating on the ball, he missed that too, but it was a fine piece of centre forward play by Dom to lose him and make the most of a delicious cross from the right back.

Newcash won a corner from the kick off and packed their giant defenders around debutant Brandon Austin to unsettle him, but when the ball came in he jumped and held the ball despite everything that was going on around him. However, after he rolled the ball out to Archie Gray and he passed to Pape Matar Sarr, the midfielder had to stretch for it and he poked it sideways and Spurs didn’t really have control of the situation. Bergvall got to it and looked to knock it on to Porro, but Joelinton got in the way with what looked like an arm knocking the ball down. It fell for Guimaraes, who played it left and from wide of the goal, Gordon shot low across Austin to find the opposite side of the goal to score. But would it be a goal, as VAR would look at it as they do for all goals and then after a long look they gave the goal saying it was accidental and with the arm in a natural position.

The referee waved play on when the game got going again when Joelinton went in late on Porro, knowing exactly what he was doing, but, when play had to be stopped, the ref did nothing about punishing the Newcash player. So, he had a free go without any redress. Then, when Spurs own the ball on halfway, Kulusevski would have been away, but Joelinton cynically tripped him. Again, advantage was played, but with Dejan on the floor and Brennan Johnson surrounded by four players, what advantage was there ? Fortuitously, the ball went to Dom, whose shot was blocked and then Sarr followed up, but hit the ball straight at the keeper from outside the box with a weak effort. When the ball eventually went out of play, the ref indicated to Joelinton that he had his two free fouls and next time he would be yellowed. Well, frankly, the two he committed were worth one yellow at least and it would have been a different game if he then had to be careful not to pick up another one, but he had free rein to have another go at a Spurs player. And he did. Waiting for a Spurs throw-in, Bergvall moved towards Porro and Joelinton elbowed him in the back of the head. Still the man in the middle failed to take any action, when it was right in front of him.

It is not only Tottenham who have cited the dark arts that Newcash use.  Snide little fouls, time-wasting, players going down when not injured and pulling and pushing off the ball are all their tricks that they employ and weak referees let them escape without being pulled up for it. For example, Dragusin challenges Isak from behind and wins the ball, Isak rolls around holding his leg and gets a free-kick. OK, in the way things are interpreted these days if he catches the man then the ref will give a free-kick, but there was nothing like the contact the Newcash striker made out.  Then, when the free-kick was waiting to be taken, the players were all lined up on the edge of the Spurs box with Porro the nearest. Isak pushes him over from behind with Porro having no idea what was coming. What did the referee do ? Talk to him, so fouling an opponent and trying to wind him up so that he did something when the ball finally was played in is worth nothing more than a few words !

As it was the tactic of piling tall men into the area wasn’t working as Austin came and claimed the ball cleanly again. You wondered why, when Burn got a booking for taking down Solanke as he ran at him on the halfway line, how was it Joelinton had got away with his fouls. This was another Newcash tactic to stop any potential break by stopping it before it went too far. Cynical fouls often go without proper punishment and break up play when it looks like going against them.

When Gordon managed to stay on his feet he got into a position similar to the goal but he tried to beat Austin at his near post, with the keeper getting down to it to push it out for a corner. He also did well when it was played in, punching the ball out and Spurs were on the break when the referee pulled it back for a foul on the keeper.  So, he let play go on when we had little advantage and then stopped play when we could have caught Newcash players stuck up-field.

Every set-piece that Newcash got seemed to take forever to get taken. When they came to nothing, Austin looked to get things going quickly. One move down the right wasn’t totally controlled but Porro knocked it on to Kulusevski who tried to find Solanke inside him on the halfway line. The ball didn’t get there, because Burn stuck out an arm to stop it. The referee thought it was a free-kick, so why not a booking as it was a deliberate movement to stop the ball following it’s natural course. Was it because Burn had just been booked or was it because the referee was totally inept ?
I know which I think was the case and it involved both parts of the question.

Teams are alive to the fact that our wingers don’t track back, so quite often our full-backs have two men to pick up when defending. It does give away a lot of chances and set-pieces. From another corner, Isak was spoken to for the second time, this time about holding before the ball was played in. When they played the ball wide to Murphy, his low ball into the goalmouth was guided wide of the far post by Isak when it looked easier to score and Gordon was free behind him and was furious the ball didn’t come through to him.

At the other end, Newcash tried to play out from a goal-kick and Solanke took the ball off Burn but there wasn’t much on, so it was cleared but when recycled Bergvall put a ball in similar to Porro’s cross for the goal, with Botman uncertain where Solanke was again, just about getting his head around it to get it out of the danger area. Another example of Newcash’s gamesmanship came when Guimaraes was put in on the left hand side of the Spurs box, with Porro going with him. The midfielder threw himself into Porro, who sensibly stood up and didn’t dive in, as that was what the Newcash player hoped so that he could fool the referee into giving a penalty. It was let go by the referee again and won them a corner. Again, Austin found himself in the Valley of the Giants, but there was so much pulling and pushing that Burn ended up in the back of the net after trying to spin Dragusin around and the keeper got a punch on the ball before being clattered by Botman, who trod on Burn as he followed him into the net. Nothing was done either when a header from a Newcash corner went up in the air wide of the goal and Austin went to claim it, but Burn had a nibble at him while he was in the air. All snide little digs that the referee and his two feeble linesmen were too weak or unwilling to do anything about.

Spurs had a throw-in in front of the East Stand in the 37th minute. Porro was looking for some movement for someone to receive it which is something we don’t do very well. It was won by the other side, moved to the right and Murphy got a yard on Spence to put a low ball in that Dragusin tried to cut out, but the ball went goal-wards, with Isak getting the last touch from a couple of yards out into an unguarded net.

More evidence of poor officiating came when Spence tried to see the ball out for a goal-kick, but under pressure, it appeared to come off Djed’s foot for a corner, but it was given as a goal-kick ! Newcash were making more chances, but hadn’t really come close, with Gordon hitting a shot across goal via a deflection, then Joelinton proving that it is more difficult for him kicking a footballer than a human being when he sliced a shot wide when he should have been hitting the target.

Tottenham were giving the ball away too cheaply and allowing too much space for the opposition players. It allowed them to dictate play mostly in the Spurs half, but when Spurs got the ball out to Porro on the right wing, his cross to the far post was nervously put out for a corner by Livramento.

The media claimed that Spurs were booed off at half-time, but they don’t know jack and the jeering was aimed at the match officials, who were such a joke that they were laughable. Ange stormed off down the tunnel and Reguilon replaced Dragusin at the start of the second half.

Porro panicked the Newcash defence with a whipped in cross inside the second minute of the half and three defenders are went for it, the ball ballooning up for Dubravka, but Don challenged him and rightly had a foul given against him, as he hit the keeper in the chest as he went for the ball. Sarr had hit the ball over the top and the keeper needed prolonged treatment (now there’s a surprise) of four minutes, but we found out some time later when PGMOL put a message on the big screen that a VAR check had ruled that the ball had been kicked against Livramento’s arm before Solanke’s foul and wasn’t handball. It would be nice to know exactly what is going on, but anyone other than those inside the ground find out first.

Solanke got a good pass in from the right by Reguilon but couldn’t turn on it with two defenders around him, then at the other end, Bergvall and Reguilon did well to block efforts around the edge of the box. Spurs were pushing forward and the Newcash defence was jittery, although twice when they cleared it Spence looked to run the ball out only to be pushed over by Gordon. Cynical to stop him starting a move, but not according to the referee. Spurs almost levelled in the 55th minute when a move down the right was played back out of the box for Sarr to shoot low to the keeper’s left and Dubravka could only push it wide. Running onto it, Brennan hit a shot that bounced out off the post from a very tight angle. From the corner, Newcash broke with numerical advantage, with Tonali trying to curl a shot into the left side of Austin’s goal, but Archie Gray did well to get his chest in the way and then Gordon blasted the loose ball over the bar with a wild effort.

Gordon soon was going down wanting a penalty when he turned into Kulusevski’s shoulder and there was another four minutes of physio work. Ange decided to make the changes while there was a break in play and there were boos for the manager as he removed Bergvall with Maddison coming on, while Werner went off for Son to replace him and Bissouma took Sarr’s place in the defensive midfield area.  Austin did really well to take a high free-kick into the box, grabbing it at the second attempt. Burn made no effort to go for the ball and Botman clattered the keeper, allowed to do so, as the ref couldn’t bring himself to pull out a card. He would rather fall for any fall by a red and blue hooped shirt made and yelled foul imploring that he
give them the decision, which he invariably did. It took until the 73rd minute for Joelinton to get his richly deserved booking. It is just a shame that the ones he pointed out were equally worth seeing yellow.

With Spurs playing all the football and keeping the ball mostly in the Newcash half, when Kulusevski tried to take a ball on the half turn in the box, Dubravka did well to claim it at the second attempt, but to break things up, Joelinton went down requiring treatment for nobody was sure what for. Then the substitution of Gordon was made after the attention that Joelinton “needed”. More time-wasting was made of it when Joelinton didn’t go off the pitch at the nearest point and referees could easily speed the game up by not getting conned by these antics.

Spurs were passing quickly around the box and when Maddison slipped the ball in to Solanke, Botman blocked him off with a body-check and got a booking for it.  From it, Tottenham won a corner that Sonny took short for Maddison to step towards the corner of the box before curling an effort through a packed goalmouth that flew a foot wide. It was a magnificent shot that Dubravka wouldn’t have got anywhere near had it been on target.

Newcash couldn’t keep the ball away from their goal and when Solanke got the ball around the penalty spot with two men behind him, he laid it off to Kulusevski, who fed it right to Johnson. His shot was pulled across the face of goal, running to the far side where Reguilon blasted it back where it had come from and it was just our luck than nobody from either side got a touch on it. To relieve the pressure, Dubravka’s punch to a cross from Reguilon caught Burn on the head, so more treatment with five minutes of normal time left, but a hefty chunk of added time to come. When treatment was over, two more substitutions, one of whom was Isak, who had wandered over to the far side of the pitch and was booked for time-wasting ! Oh, if only the referee had booked every instance Newcash ran down the clock.

Hilariously, Tonali tried to pass to Burn, who was off the pitch after being treated and couldn’t come on, so the ball ran out for a throw to Spurs. Finding some profit in long passes to Son, Newcash were unable to double up on the Spurs club captain, so there was space to be exploited. Breaking play up when Botman went down with cramp and had to be substituted, it took an age for him to go off as the added time was revealed as 10 minutes.

Being able to spot which way a throw in should go or whether a goalkeeper touched the ball or not is the basic skill a match official should possess, but this set seemed to be bereft of such decision making, so when Solanke tried to loop a header over the Newcash keeper, it looked as though he touched it over, but not according to any of the men in orange. Dom had another header from a fine Porro cross, as he tried to glide it across the keeper, but it was within Dubravka’s reach.

When Reguilon went in to tackle Tonali, he caught his ankle and was rightly booked, but the Italian’s triple roll was unnecessary and embarrassing. Another but of disrespect from Joelinton to the linesman after a late foul against him was let go, but again, dissent against an official is something that the FA keep complaining about, but won’t be stopped until they do something about it.

Having made a good reaction save at his near post to Barnes’ flick at goal from a narrow angle, Austin then had to come to head a ball that wasn’t going into the box, but bumped into Gray and fortunately, nothing fell to Newcash’s advantage for a change.

So, the youngest team Tottenham had put out for 10 years failed narrowly to get anything from this match. But for long periods of the second half, Newcash were defending like they were playing one of the top sides in the country and posed few second half worries to a side with only one of the defensive unit being a regular and players (Dragusin and Gray for definite and maybe more) who had been laid low by a virus.

It was the young players who showed some of the more experienced ones the way with some spirited performances.  Bergvall made himself available to receive the ball and spread play well.  Gray was calmness personified on the ball and picking up good defensive positions, while Brandon Austin showed great handling and great confidence on his first appearance in the first team.  Pedro Porro put a regular supply of quality crosses into the box and that is the sort of service that Dominic needs to get his goals and when Son and Maddison came on, they worked the left wing well, but such a dour outfit as Newcash were going to be hard to break down once ahead, getting ten men back behind the ball as soon as possession was lost.

The match officials should face some kind of appraisal for the way they handled this match, but, as usual, they will be back next week, with no sanction for their poor handling of the match.  To show it wasn’t just Spurs that they gave dodgy decisions against.  When Bissouma was chasing Willock back, he threw himself at the substitute, knocking him over, but he regained his feet and carried on with the attack.  Whether it was because he let Guimaraes get away with something similar (although not as bad) or that he forgot who made the foul as the ball didn’t go dead for a long time, I don’t know, but Yves’ challenge was worth a booking. 

At least Ange wasn’t falling for the post-match interviewer’s attempt at getting a scoop and his standard answer to all the pointed questions he was being asked left little room for manoeuvre for the journo, who was trying to make a name for himself.  It’s been a recurring theme that Postecoglou is asked the same questions time and time again, so it is not a surprise that he is finding this line of enquiry utterly tedious.  Not that the comment so one fan on the way out who’s view was that the manager has to go.   Personally, I would prefer to judge him when he has had a full complement of players to choose from.

A lot of effort was put into the match, with no reward and Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final against Liverpool will show how much it has taken out of the side.   And all of this couldn’t have happened at a worse time with cup matches and a busy set of league games coming up.

Harry Sandford

 

MATCH NOTES
 
  • Brandon Austin made his Spurs debut.

 

OTHER RESULTS
  AFC Bournemouth 1 Everton 0
  Aston Villa 2 Leicester City 1
  Crystal Palace 1 Chelsea 1
  Mancashter City 4 West Ham United London 1
  South Coast Big Club 0 Brentford 5
  Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Woolwich Wanderers 1
  Fulham 2 Ipswich Town 2
  Liverpool 2 Mancashter United 2
  Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 Nottingham Forest 3


Premier League Table 2024-25

Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Points Goal difference
1 Liverpool 19 14 4 1 47 19 46 +28
2 Woolwich Wanderers 20 11 7 2 39 18 40 +21
3 Nottingham Forest 20 12 4 4 29 19 40 +10
4 Chelsea 20 10 6 4 39 24 36 +15
5 Newcash United 20 10 5 5 34 22 35 +12
6 Mancashter City 20 10 4 6 36 27 34 +9
7 AFC Bournemouth 20 9 6 5 30 23
33 +7
8 Aston Villa 20 9 5 6 30 32 32 -2
9 Fulham 20 7 9 4 30 27 30 +3
10 Brighton & Hove Albion 20 6 10 4 30 29 28 +1
11 Brentford 20 8 3 9 38 35 27 +3
12 Tottenham Hotspur 20 7 3 10 42 30 24 +12
13 Mancashter United 20 6 5 9 23 28 23 -5
14 West Ham United London 20 6 5 9 24 39 23 -15
15 Crystal Palace 20 4 9 7 21 28 21 -7
16 Everton 19 3 8 8 15 25 17 -10
17 Wolverhampton Wanderers 20 4 4 12 31 45 16 -14
18 Ipswich Town 20 3 7
10 20 35 16 -15
19 Leicester City 20 3 5 12 23 44 14 -21
20 South Coast Big Club 20 1 3 16 12 44 6 -32