COVENTRY CITY |
1 | TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR |
2 | |
|
(0) | (0) | ||
Date : – Wednesday 18th September 2024 |
Kick off : – 20.00 |
|||
Competition : – League Cup Third Round |
Venue : – Coventry Building Society Arena |
|||
Crowd : – 24,606 |
Referee : – Darren England (Sheffield & Hallamshire) | Linesmen : – Mr. Nick Greenhalgh; Mr. Akil Howson | |
Fourth official : – Stephen Martin | ||
Weather : – Cloudy, chilly | ||
Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the North Stand end | ||
Playing time : – 90 + 7 minutes |
COVENTRY CITY | TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR | |||
GOAL-SCORERS | ||||
![]() |
Asante 62m 41s | ![]() |
Spence 87m 04s (asst. Kulusevski) | |
![]() |
Johnson 90+1m 33s (asst. Bentancur) | |||
CARDS | ||||
![]() |
Binks (foul on Gray) 25 | ![]() |
Maddison (dissent) 90 | |
![]() |
Allen (delaying play) 55 | |||
![]() |
Kitching (delaying play as a substitute) 85 | |||
![]() |
Asante (foul on Maddison) 90+4 | |
||
![]() |
![]() |
|||
TEAMS | ||||
13. | Ben WILSON | 20. | Fraser FORSTER | |
27. | Milan van EWIJK | 14. | Archie GRAY | |
4. | Bobby THOMAS | 6. | Radu DRAGUSIN | |
2. | Luis BINKS ![]() |
33. | Ben DAVIES (c) | |
21. | Jake BIDWELL | 13. | Destiny UDOGIE ( 24. Djed SPENCE 46 ![]() |
|
28. | Josh ECCLES (c) ( 14. Ben SHEAF 71) | 29. | Pape Matar SARR | |
8. | Jamie ALLEN ![]() |
30. | Rodrigo BENTANCUR | |
15. | Lucas BERGVALL ( 10. James MADDISON 62 ![]() |
|||
23. | Brandon THOMAS-ASANTE ![]() ![]() |
|||
5. | Jack RUDONI ( 29. Victor TORP 78) | 28. | Wilson ODOBERT ( 21. Brennan JOHNSON 18 ![]() |
|
11. | Haji WRIGHT ( 10. Ephron MASON-CLARKE 71) | 19. | Dominic SOLANKE ( 7. Heung-Min SON 62) | |
16. | Timo WERNER ( 21. Dejan KULUSEVSKI 74) | |||
37. | Norman BASSETTE ( 9. Ellis SIMMS 70) | |||
Substitutes | Substitutes | |||
40. | Bradley COLLINS | 1. | Guglielmo VICARIO | |
51. | Harvey BROAD | 23. | Pedro PORRO | |
54. | Kai ANDREWS | 3. | Sergio REGUILON | |
15. | Liam KITCHING ![]() |
47. | Mikey MOORE | |
7. | Tatsuhiro SAKAMOTO |
= Assist
= Goal scored
= Own goal scored
Manager : – Mark Robins | Manager : – Ange Postecoglou |
Kit Supplier : – Hummel | Kit Supplier : – Nike |
Shirt Sponsor : – Monzo | Shirt Sponsor : – AIA |
Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – Mercury | Shirt Sleeve Sponsor : – Kraken |
Colours : – Sky Blue Shirts White Shirts Sky Blue socks |
Colours : –![]() |
Images of kits courtesy of the marvellous Colours of Football website | |
MATCH REPORT |
|
While Spurs progressed to the Fourth Round of the League Cup, the late come-back win show not paper over the cracks of what was a rank bad performance, salvaged by a couple of decent goals that saved an embarrassing exit from the competition.
An early loose pass by Fraser Forster, playing his first match since we were knocked out of last season’s League Cup, made Lucas Bergvall stretch and the ball was only diverted to Rudoni. From the edge of the box, he shot, but it was too near Forster and he pushed it wide for a corner. The set-piece was played in to the near post and Fraser grabbed it nervously at the second attempt. The aggressive approach by the home team involved lots of pushing and hands on marking, so there were plenty of turnovers and lost possession. Wilson Odobert got hit by a challenge that resulted in him having to leave the pitch, as Brennan Johnson came off the bench to take his place with only 16 minutes gone. There was lots of possession in the middle third of the pitch without much danger being caused in either penalty area. Both Werner and Johnson were sticking to the side-lines but passes to them were always behind them, making them turn back rather than being able to run forward with it. When someone could run at the Coventry defence. Gray was cynically brought down by former Spurs Academy defender Binks, who got a yellow card for his foul. Timo Werner had to slide in to block a shot after Udogie had been the victim of a clash of heads in the Tottenham box, but when the corner came in Forster’s height helped him punch the ball away. It wasn’t until the 38th minute when there was another effort on goal. And it was a left wing cross from Coventry that went beyond all the players in the box except for Rudoni, who drifted in at the far post and stroked a volley on target, but Destiny blocked it in the six yard box. Then Bassett burst through for a shot that was always rising over the bar. The half petered out, with Spurs conceding possession too easily or failing to combine with team-mates in mis-understanding where players would be running. Postecoglou brought on Spence as a direct replacement for Udogie as both sides were giving the ball away cheaply at the start of the second half. Johnson fired in a shot from the right after a good run by Solanke, but it hit a defender and went out for a corner. When it was played in, there were players all over the floor as the bumping and pushing went on. When Spurs looked to play the ball out, there was nobody ready to take the ball on the half-turn to go past an opponent. When Spurs lost the ball, it was a simple forward pass that released Bassette and his low shot was well saved by Forster. Another looped ball forward almost found the same player until Spence appeared to put the ball out for a corner taking it off the forward’s toe. Forster came for the corner and let the ball slip through his hands when it should have been an easy catch and when Coventry played a high ball forward, he had a rush of blood, coming rushing out of his penalty area. Bassette was under it, but the keeper’s jump missed him, then bumping into Dragusin and the ball ran loose behind them to Asante, who slid the ball at the open goal, but Ben Davies made a fine sliding interception to put the ball away for another corner. Nerves were jangling in the Spurs defence and it was Forster who was causing most of them. Some of it might have been due to players unused to playing together, but a lot was down to basic communication. Tottenham’s best chance came from a Bergvall corner when Davies came in and powered a header at goal and the keeper had to make a reflex save to concede another corner. The goal for the home side eventually came in the 63rd minute, when a break down the left saw the ball played in low by Bassette and Asante had got in behind Davies to slide his shot in at the near post and it was all the Sky Blues deserved. Coming just after the Spurs substitutions, it was a bad time for Tottenham to concede, as not having looked like scoring they now had to get two. Twice Mason-Clarke came in at the far post to take a ball across from Ellis Simms. First time he guided it wide but was offside, the second time he did the same from an onside position, so it could easily have been 0-2. Spence did well to win the ball as a defender looked to shield it out and it came back to substitute Kulusevski (who came on when Werner got injured) and then the Swede had his follow-up shot blocked. That was a pre-cursor to a nice move started by Bentancur, who was probably Tottenham’s best player and saw Maddison turn the ball forward for Kulusevski to nudge it on into the box. There he found Djed Spence running on and despite being pushed over by van Ewijk, he reached the ball and poked it past Wilson to make it 1-1. It was Bentancur again who started an injury time move when he won the ball in midfield, moved forward and for once, the ball was played in front of Johnson. As the ball ran into the penalty area, the keeper came off his line to close Brennan down, but the winger put the ball wide of the keeper to find the opposite bottom corner to turn the game around in Tottenham’s favour. Coventry started losing their heads and Asante’s snide knee in Maddison’s arse brought him a booking, as the game came to an end shortly after. It brought an end to a match that saw Spurs poor for the majority of the match and maybe it was the difference in quality that prevented Coventry from getting a second goal and when Spurs were presented with a couple of opportunities, they finished clinically. That hasn’t happened too much for Tottenham this season, but it shows that when you put the ball in front of a player with a well-weighted pass, they are more than capable of doing the rest. Coventry did well against a mix and match Spurs side that was much like the one Ange put out to face Fulham last season, when we were knocked out on penalties. This time he got lucky and while he tried to juggle the squad in the four competitions we will be playing in this season, it might be necessary to pick a bit more of an experienced side to get ahead before resting some players. The injuries to Werner and Odobert won’t help things either. More direct play brought about both goals, so the difference between the laboured slow build-up that typified the Spurs play in the first 80 minutes. It was more like the way we played last season and hopefully, it might make the players more aware of the way to get past defences. However, as much as the win was achieved by Spence and Johnson’s goals, great credit must go to Ben Davies, who stopped a certain goal when Asante looked certain to score after the Forster/Dragusin clash. Then again … green kit … last minute winner. Sound familiar ?? Sparky Marky |
MATCH NOTES |
|
|
OTHER RESULTS | ||||
Stoke City (won 2-1 on pens) | 1 | Fleetwood Town | 1 | |
Blackpool | 0 | Sheffield Wednesday | 1 | |
Brentford | 3 | Leyton Orient | 1 | |
Everton | 1 | South Coast Big Club (won 6-5 on pens) | 1 | |
Preston North End (won 16-15 on pens) | 1 | Fulham | 1 | |
Mancashter United | 7 | Barnsley | 0 | |
Queens Park Rangers | 1 | Crystal Palace | 2 | |
Brighton & Hove Albion | 3 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 2 | |
AFC Wimbledon | – | Newcash United | – | |
Chelsea | – | Barrow | – | |
Mancashter City | – | Watford | – | |
Walsall |
– | Leicester City | – | |
Wycombe Wanderers | – | Aston Villa | – | |
Woolwich Wanderers | – | Bolton Wanderers | – | |
Liverpool | – | West Ham United London | – |