Newcash United (Away) 13.04.2024

Postecoglou dropped Pape Matar Sarr for Bentancur to come in as the only change to the line-up that started against Forest six days ago, but right from the start Tottenham failed to get the ball moving.  Injury-hit Newcash had worked on pressing Tottenham hard and it lead to a regular turning over of possession, with very few phases of damaging passing from our team.  Bentancur passed straight to Gordon, who outpaced him down the right wing and won a corner, which was the first of three, but they couldn’t create anything from them.  The home side were pushing up high to stop Spurs playing the ball out, but a good move between Werner and Udogie down the left won a corner with five minutes gone. It went to the far post where it was cleared, but in the next attack, Bentancur sent Johnson away and his cross from the right was the sort we have seen tucked away so often, but Werner was caught in two minds as to whether to head it or volley it at waist height and he chose the latter, but shinned it over the top.

A good covering tackle by Porro denied Barnes a shooting opportunity when the ball was swept over from the right to him in space.  From the corner Romero headed it against Bissouma and as the ball dropped for Guimaraes, Yves reacted quicker to knock it off for another corner.  That gave Newcash a free header, but it was  put wide. Romero did well to block Barnes ball across goal from the left, but it brought another corner, which Vicario palmed up and grabbed at the second attempt.

At the other end, Son played a delicious pass with the outside of his right foot to Werner, who cut back and shot, by which time Son had made a run for the return pass, but got in the way of the shot being offside and getting knocked off his feet by it too !  Spurs were making good ground on the left, with Maddison getting to the line to pull it back for Werner, who skewed his shot across goal. Gordon wrestled Werner off the ball with nothing given before he ran into Maddison, who got a long talking to. The referee was making a rod for his own back by not booking Schar for a foul on Son in the first minute that was a nailed on yellow card. So when Burn dragged down Maddison just inside the Spurs half with Werner free on the left, he deemed it worth another  lecture and not a caution.

Newcash were in the referee’s ear every time there was a whistle and they persuaded him to book van de Ven when he tackled Gordon and it was a bit of a joke after what had gone before. Losing control of the game so early left Micky walking a tightrope for the remaining hour of the game.  What he was also doing was walking on a banana skin when Gordon held off Udogie and passed left to Barnes, who cut inside and Micky slipped as Isak cut inside to shot past Vicario’s right hand. It was a little against the run of play as Spurs had just messed up a move inside the Newcash box when Son and Maddison confused each other.

Three minutes later, Porro played a pass back to Vicario, but it went straight to Gordon and he cut inside van de Ven and he slipped again, leaving Vicario exposed to have little chance to save. It started to look like last season with two goals in such short succession.  The yellow card had obviously played on Micky’s mind as he couldn’t slide in as he usually did with the possibility of the inconsistent referee more than likely to send him off if there was a barcode shirt going down and their players surrounding him as they did most of the match.

Having looked comfortable on the ball, it looked as though the game had been taken away from them and only a recovery tackle robbed Isak of going clear on the edge of the box. Udogie made a similarly important tackle with Isak with the ball at his feet ten yards out and when Son ran past Guimaraes, who just chopped him down, was there a booking. No. Vicario had to dive out at Isak’s feet when he took down Barnes pass inside the box with no Spurs defender near him, then the Swedish striker won a header to the corner but put it over.

A long ball back saw Burn head it past his own keeper as he rushed out of his box and then, as Bentancur looked to get onto it, the Newcash defender kicked him on the shoulder, when Rodrigo was standing tall. VAR looked at it, but it was getting to be a bit of a farce with all the decisions going the way of the home team. Why wouldn’t a boot that high be a free-kick ?

The second half started with Longstaff going down after being tackled by Bissouma, which was never a yellow card, but the first minute of the second half is obviously very different to the first minute of the first half in the referee’s mind and Yves went into the book.  From the free-kick, only an interception at the far post by Porro stopped Isak getting the ball back on goal. However, it was the last action for Porro, who looked to have pulled his hamstring in reaching the ball.

Five minutes into the half, Werner came inside from the right to hit a shot that Dubravka fumbled and Son looked to get there, but the keeper beat him to it.  When a Spurs move broke down a long ball out caught van de Ven on the hallway line inside the Newcash half and Isak got away behind him, racing away to slot across the Spurs keeper to make it 0-3.  You just got the feeling that it wasn’t going to be long before Bissouma or Micky would get sent off to make the day even more miserable.

They wanted a penalty when a cross hit Emerson Royal but his arms were tucked in to his body, but it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if the ref had given it. Then Guimaraes went down weakly when challenged by Bissouma in the box and another penalty shout went up.  The ref went to his pocket again when Romero tackled Guimaraes that was no worse than what was going on elsewhere.  The free-kick was played in and Isak got clear, although he looked offside, but missed the header although it almost bent in at the far post.

Ange made a triple sub with Kulusevski on for Son, Sarr for Bentancur and Hojbjerg for Bissouma.  Foul by Newcash followed foul and the referee didn’t deem any of them bookable offences, while anything committed by Tottenham brought a booking. On the hour, Johnson tried a shot from outside the box, but it went way too high and it was the first shot on goal for a long time. A raised foot by Maddison for example on Murphy was rightly a yellow card, but where was that when Bentancur got kicked in the shoulder ?

Anderson turned Royal in the box and shot from a tight angle on their left, with Vicario pushing it round the post and from the corner, only an air shot from Burn in front of goal saved Spurs from another goal being conceded.  The game got aa little ragged with the ball being won off each side, but Maddison tried a long-range effort with 20 minutes left and it sailed over the bar. Spurs were getting plenty of possession 25 yards from the Newcash goal, but couldn’t find a killer pass to get through the black and white barrier that was thrown up in front of their box.

Ten minutes were remaining when Maddison made a tackle to conceded a corner and it was a poor one to the near post, which was headed away outside the box but Krafth took a swing at it, hit it into the ground and it flew across goal to bounce off the foot of the far post.  Only Micky getting back to make a block on Gordon when he was open in the box stopped the net bulging again, but it didn’t stop it for long with the corner giving Schar a free header to put it back where it came from.

Dubravka had to make a save as the game went into added time, when his ball in looked like it might sneak in at the far post, but Guimaraes got away with a worse tackle than anything that the referee had used his yellow card for and avoided a suspension in the process.  There were yellow cards that had been given to Spurs players, but equally, they weren’t given to Newcash players when they should have been.

It was embarrassing the way that Spurs defended corners during this match.  Not that the opposition targeted Vicario, but the lack of a tactic to attack the ball in the air, allowing Newcash free header after free header, finally resulting in a goal towards the end of the match.  But by then the game had long been lost.  Two quick goals either side of the half hour brought back bitter memories of a year ago, almost to the day and while this wasn’t quite as bad as that day it was approaching it, as the score-line could have been approaching 2023 proportions had the home side been better at finishing.

Yes, by all means, put it down to being a bad day at the office, but we can’t afford any more of these before the end of the season, with Villa already above us courtesy of the four goals conceded giving them a better goal difference.  The lack of determination and competitiveness was the most disappointing thing and we have better teams than Newcash still to play.

Barry Levington

• The teams took the knee before kick off
• Black armbands were worn to commemorate the recent death of Joe Kinnear
• Newcash’s second goal was their 250th against Spurs in competitive matches.