Sheffield United (Home) 16.09.2023

Peter Bankes’ display was nothing less than shocking and it was fair to say that he didn’t lose control of the game, because he never really had it.  It wasn’t just a lack of consistency, but a lack of application of the laws of the game and a complete lack of understanding of the game.  For example, twice the ball was thrown onto the pitch by some idiots in the South stand when the game was in progress, causing it to be stopped.  When such an incident occurs, he should drop the ball to the team who were last in possession.  The first time, he did so, with Spurs getting the ball where it was last touched, but opposition players were not back the required 4m.  The second time when we had been in possession, he dropped the ball with the Sheffield United goalkeeper nowhere near where the play was stopped.  Basic application of the laws – Epic fail.

The game had 13 bookings and while it wasn’t a particularly dirty game, the “crackdown” on time-wasting and dissent appears to have been applied very differently by Mr. Bankes.  Having booked the United keeper for handling the ball outside the box in the first half, he then allowed him to waste time at goal-kicks and before kicking the ball out from his hands.  More basic application of the laws, but it would have meant a second yellow sending off the keeper for time-wasting.  No back-bone from the match official and something that if they really do want to stamp down on time-wasting, they need to do.  [See the article earlier this week about time-wasting.]

After the match Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom was whingeing.  Heckingbottom, who I thought had been a decent manager before today as his side tried to play football, obviously had decided that would only lead to his side getting beaten and if you concentrated on the playing side, they were well-drilled and stuck to their plan to stop Spurs.  It didn’t stop us having shots on goal, but they were either blocked or saved, but his comments about the referee stopping his goalkeeper playing the ball out were hilarious.  His assertion that because Spurs had worked out how to stop it happening at United goal-kicks, it took Foderingham more time to work out how to beat the press.  That leads to two issues in these comments.  Firstly, hadn’t a Plan B been worked out in training and secondly, he was leaving the problem solving to his goalkeeper.  He was also unhappy about McBurnie being sent off for a second yellow card for dissent.  That was perhaps the one aspect of the game that the referee got right, with Maddison being booked for falling to the ground in frustration at another poor decision previously, so why should McBurnie get away with it ?  However, Bankes failed to show a yellow card to Foderingham when he twice threw his gloves down in anger, although he was right to show a yellow card to Robinson for flicking the ball up at Son to get him booked for not retreating at a free-kick just outside his own box.  It almost back-fired on him, as he missed the Spurs skipper and it could have led to a chance for Spurs if the game hadn’t been stopped.

All the stoppages – for free-kicks, bookings and injuries – played into The Blades’ hands.  While there were few threats on the Spurs goal throughout the match, the referee disrupted the game with regular stoppages.  That meant that one set-piece brought Sheffield United the lead.  It was in the 73rd minute that a long-throw from the right touch-line caused the ball to reach the far side of the box and Hamer struck it low, first-time, seeing the ball go in off Vicario’s left hand post.  Prior to that they had a couple of headers from corners that were off target and Guglielmo only had one proper save to make in the first half when a ball was chopped back for McAtee, whose low shot was kept out by the keeper’s foot.

Tottenham had started off on the front foot, with Pape Matar Sarr having found his shooting boots after his goal against Man U firing a low effort that Foderingham dived to get behind after only nine minutes.  McBurnie then hit a shot that was blocked by the back of his own player Archer, being followed by Bissouma shimmying past a couple of players in the box to strike low for goal at the near post, but the keeper was there to foil him.  Heung-Min Son tried to curl a shot around the defenders in front of him, with Foderingham getting down low to the foot of his left hand post to push the ball away.  After Vicario had saved from McAtee, Spurs broke but Maddison’s weak effort was easily saved, as he didn’t catch it properly.  Manor Solomon, who has a look of Aaron Lennon about him when he runs with the ball, worked a bit of space as he ran across the 18 yard line from the left and pulled a shot back towards the near post, but again, the goalie was behind it on the dive.   

Just after the half hour there were two shouts for a Spurs penalty.  Firstly, Basham, who had just been booked, looked as though he caught Maddison as he entered the area and then Sarr’s cross hit the same defender, with shouts for handball, but play went on and Maddison’s shot was saved.  For no apparent reason, this seemed to injure the Sheffield goalkeeper and he needed treatment, the first of many to come !  James then dragged an effort just wide after Solomon had pulled the ball back for him, just before the yellow cards started to be waved.  Archer threw the ball away and then a long ball forward caught Foderingham dithering about what to do with it on the left hand side of his box, resulting in him trying to knock it back into his area from outside of it.

The first half had only three minutes of added time (with one extra for the time taken to book the keeper), when there had been a long stoppage for a head injury, treatment to the goalie and plenty of time-wasting, but half-time came and went, with no changes when the team restarted.

An early corner to Tottenham brought the first drop ball when a second ball was thrown onto the pitch, which resulted in Romero heading the ball back across goal and Foderingham taking it before colliding with van de Ven.  The keeper went mad and apparently needed stitches for a cut to the head, but it couldn’t have been bleeding that badly, because he didn’t change his shirt, although he did have to recover his gloves that he threw on the ground in a fit of pique.  Quite why Micky got booked is something only known to Mr. Bankes.  After McBurnie was booked for a crude foul on Solomon, Spurs laid siege on the United goal with Son and Dejan having shots blocked before another ball was thrown onto the pitch.

It was all Spurs, with Romero trying a header from 15 yards out but sending it wide, Son was floored in the box and then Solomon came inside to send a shot over the bar.  Maddison’s yellow card came in the 67th minute, with Manor following him into the book for a little pull on a United player.  It was five minutes later when the away side took the lead and to be honest, the way they were playing to while away the time, it looked unlikely that we would get back into it.  Solomon sent a shot off target and that was his last involvement in the game, with Perisic taking his place, Sarr being replaced by Richarlison and Son going off for Brennan Johnson to make his debut.  They were attacking moves by Ange with just ten minutes of normal time left.

The new forward signing made an immediate impact, racing away from the pedestrian Robinson to put a low ball across for Perisic to shoot past the keeper, but it was disallowed as the referee decided that Johnson had fouled Robinson.  When Bogle went down with cramp and needed medical attention (really ?  Who needs a physio to deal with cramp ?), Bissouma tried to pull him up starting a bit of pushing and shoving, with Yves the next yellow card victim.  However, before you could say Jack Robinson, Bissouma played a great ball over the United defender and loanee Luke Thomas from Leicester (who I hadn’t realised was playing), for Brennan to stretch and bring the ball down in mid-air before sorting his feet out to drop Foderingham to the ground and lifting a delicate shot in at the near post with his right boot from just inside the six yard box.  It was a fine finish, but an offside flag deprived him of a debut goal.

Still Spurs went forward, with Richi heading Porro’s cross over the top, Dejan bringing a low save out of the keeper and that was as the fourth official showed 12 minutes of time to be added on !  You could feel the lift among the Spurs fans, as the game only seemed to be going one way now, but we still had to find the breakthrough.  Porro was struggling and was replaced by Emerson Royal, with Postecoglou deciding to put on Hojbjerg in place of van de Ven to shore things up in midfield, freeing other players to attack.

And then it happened !  In the eighth minute of added time, Basham headed the ball out for a corner on our left.  Perisic swung it in and making a good move to leave the leaden footed Basham behind him, Richarlison rose to power a header in at the near post.  The relief was palpable – both for him after the week he has had and for the crowd, who were ecstatic that we had got back into the match, with another four minutes still to be played.

Within two minutes, we had turned the game around.  Maddison tried to play a pass forward for Richarlison, but he slipped and it was tidied up, with the Ahmedhodzic looking for Archer on their right wing.  Destiny Udogie had spotted it and beat the winger to the ball, knocking it inside for Hojbjerg who then played it forward to Perisic.  He turned it around the corner for Richi, moving into the box and he passed it back to Kulusevski between two yellow shirted players.  Dejan controlled it with his right foot, knocked it wide of the oncoming Robinson with his left and then buried a right foot shot just inside the near post through the defender’s legs and it left the keeper with no hope of saving it.  There was that moment in time with all cracking goals where the ball goes in with relative quiet before the rush of acoustic energy pours down from the terraces.  And boy was it loud !  The only thing that Robinson was left beating was the turf, as the ball had flown in to make it 2-1.   

It felt like that was going to be that, but there was still time for the referee to book Perisic joined him in the book for contesting Basham’s claim that Richarlison had elbowed him in the face.  From the resulting free-kick, McBurnie swung Johnson around as the ball flew over his head and then started asking the ref why he had given the free-kick against him which got him a second yellow.  Richarlison got a late yellow, as the referee was trying to complete a full set for pointing out where a free-kick should be taken and where the referee made it eventually be taken from !

What happened in added time was that the Sheffield players lost their heads.  A late tackle on Porro from behind by Davies earned him a booking and there were panicky clearances from a side not accustomed to being in the lead.  The lack of concentration by their players when Spurs were still hunting the ball down into the 100th minute was typical of how they played what was to be an extra 16 minutes.  Tired, maybe, but then Spurs looked fresh and Heckingbottom only made three substitutions, all at different times, as he tried to run down the clock, usually taking off a player who was just receiving treatment to try and eek out another few seconds.  It has been said before this season, but the belief in the Tottenham side to keep playing their game paid off today.  It might not in every match, but not to concentrate too much on what the other side are doing puts the pressure on the opposition … and Sheffield United crumbled under that pressure. 

It was a comeback that wasn’t really on the cards for much of the game, even though Tottenham dominated a lot of it.  United used every trick to deny Spurs, with the immense amount of time the keeper wasted probably being accountable for the time at the end of the second half added on in which Spurs scored.  But it was a performance of resilience by Tottenham that came good in the end after knocking at the door for so long.  There is a belief that “we go again” and to come back from behind against such a side determined to spoil as Sheffield United shows a bit of our own steel.  

By the end, the away section which couldn’t keep quiet during the minute’s silence before kick off for the victims of the earthquake in Morocco and the floods in Libya were deafeningly silent.  Some of them had left when the second Spurs goal went in and the area was half-empty by the time the final whistle blew.  The rest of the ground was jumping, as Spurs fans were savouring the victory over a team who failed to heed Paul Coyte’s Danny Blanchflower quite before the match … “The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It is about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”

As I was heading home, being held in the queue at the train station, a couple of Sheffield United fans were nearby.  One said that he hoped they lost their next game as he couldn’t wait until they got back into the “Champ” because the Premier League was corrupt.  He went on to add that there wasn’t anyone around him who would agree that there should have been 12 minutes added on to the end of the second half.  But with only three in the first half, you had to agree with him … it should have been more like 15 in the second, the amount of time they wasted.  It only goes to show that if they had played the game, all that time wouldn’t have needed to be added on and they might have got the undeserved win they thought was theirs.

Ollie from Hertford

• Brennan Johnson makes his Tottenham debut.
• Ivan Perisic made his 50th Tottenham appearance.
• Spurs have their best start to a season since 1965-1966.
• This was the latest recovery to win from being behind in Premier League history, with Tottenham being behind until the 98th minute before scoring twice late in added time.  The previous latest win from a losing position was Spurs’ turnaround win over Leicester City on 19th January 2022.
• Richarlison scored his 50th Premier League goal (Watford, Everton, Tottenham).
• Dejan Kulusevski’s goal is the latest in a Premier League match since records started to be kept in 2006
• Tottenham’s second goal was their 175th against Sheffield United in competitive matches.
• The 61,706 attendance at this match was the largest for a Spurs home game between the two sides.