South Coast Big Club (Home) 21.04.2021

Worn with red shorts

With VAR intervening to disallow one Spurs goal and then award us a penalty, you could say it evened itself out over the course of the game, but a first half performance reminiscent of Mourinho’s later tenure had to be turned around in the second half to secure a 2-1 win over South Coast Big Club.

Ryan Mason’s career as Interim Spurs manager almost had a start to forget. When a quick free-kick led to a cross being swung in from the SCBC left wing, Salisu rose to head the ball at goal from a few yards out and Hugo Lloris reacted well to push the ball out but only to Che Adams. Five yards out from goal he struck the ball firmly on the volley, but kept it low and the Spurs captain had recovered to get his thigh in the way and block the shot with a great stop. The resulting corner saw Bendarek flick the ball on at the near post to win another corner, but this one was cleared. Spurs were obviously missing Harry Kane in defence as well as attack.

Tottenham, playing a 4-4-3 system, worked the ball into the box, after Salisu missed Alderweireld’s long forward pass. Bale got onto it and back-heeled it.  Salisu missed the ball again allowing it to go through for Giovani Lo Celso inside the right side of the penalty box, who tried to curl one beyond McCarthy, but put it wide. Kyle Walker-Peters returned to his former home ground and almost got in at the other end in similar style, when Reguilon didn’t cut out a ball forward, but Hugo was out on top of him very quickly and blocked the attempted shot.

The Saints were dictating play, with Spurs unable to build passing moves, but Lucas got in the way of a shot from Lo Celso when they did get in range. Getting through the two banks of four was proving difficult for Tottenham, but the visitors looked like they wanted it more and were looking to win set-pieces that would suit their giant players. From a corner, Aurier got beaten to the ball by Danny Ings on the corner of the six-yard box at the near post and his header slid across Hugo with the ball to going in off his left-hand post. It wasn’t a high ball in, but the striker got across Aurier to win the header and put the visitors ahead after half an hour.

Pre-match when Mason said he wanted the players to bring fight and energy to the team and it was hard to see that with players not giving their all and not chasing back when they lost the ball without getting a free-kick for a perceived foul. It was making SCBC look good. Free-kicks were not really of much use for Spurs and they were being played short as there was no point pumping it into the box.  When Spurs broke away finding Son on the edge of the box, Armstrong barged into him, giving Spurs a dead ball situation just outside the area, but Dier drove it straight at the wall.  Another followed 30 yards out, with Sonny taking it and only finding Adams’ head at the far post.

White shirts were being out-numbered three to one when they received the ball, so the effort certainly needed to be stepped up to match the closing of the opposition. They were being much more aggressive than Tottenham. When Reguilon made a long run to win a corner, Bale played it in and Alderweireld flicked it on where it hit a defender at the far post and dropped behind Son at the far post.  Then a long diagonal into the area from the right wing found Son at the far post and he volleyed the ball back across the six-yard box. It evaded a couple of SCBC defenders, who missed it and Lucas Moura was on the end of it, but he was leaning back as he prodded at it, sending the ball high into the Paxton Road end.

At the start of the second period saw SCBC sharp and aggressive again, but Spurs had the first chance when Bale touched back a pass forward into Son’s feet and his shot was blocked by a defender. Gareth then had a pop himself, coming in from the right wing to drill and effort, but it was straight at McCarthy with the first Spurs shot on goal with 54 minutes gone. One of the problems facing Spurs was their slow build-up allowed plenty of players to get back behind the ball, whereas SCBC were quick to get the ball forward and Ings fired in a shot at Lloris from 25 yards, but he injured himself in the process and needed to be substituted.

Persistent fouls on the Spurs man on the ball well away from goal broke up any momentum and when we were able to move the ball around, we looked much more dangerous than in the first half.  Tottenham had a spell of possession and shifted the ball from right to left, where Reguilon brought the ball down on his chest. He played a short pass to Tanguy, who sped things up with a quick pass into Son’s feet inside the area and a little lay-off allowed Moura to shoot. Salisu got a block on it, but the ball went to the right to Bale, who controlled it, waited until he had the ball out of his feet and curled a delightful shot beyond three defenders and the keeper who were between him and the goal, finding the top right-hand corner of the keeper’s net. There hadn’t been many Tottenham efforts on goal, but this was a classy one, levelling the score as the clock ticked close to the hour mark.

Spurs suddenly looked more interested and SCBC might have been deflated by Ings’ departure and conceding the goal. Reguilon played Lo Celso the ball and Bendarek didn’t deal with him, allowing Gio to drag the ball across the face of goal where there wasn’t a white shirt to convert it.  We were losing the ball too softly and it was exposing the defence to counter-attacks, although the Saints were loose in their final pass. Ward-Prowse very sportingly urged SCBC to hold onto the ball instead of knocking it out after KWP clattered Lo Celso, but it was Ndombele who came off with Winks replacing him.

With Saints tiring and fifteen minutes left, Spurs produced a much better move with Aurier into Lo Celso who found Reguilon on the left. The ball was squared to Son, who buried his shot first time into he bottom right hand corner of the net with 74 minutes gone, but VAR ruled it offside after the referee looked at it, with Lucas Moura in the line of the keeper’s sight when the shot came in. Once more, Son was denied by no fault of his own.

Lamela came on for the last ten minutes, which was a surprise, as I thought Dele might have got a run out and he stayed on the bench as Bergwijn came on for Bale a couple of minutes later. A late corner hit Vestergaard’s arm, but it looked as though he moved it to the ball and as it ricocheted around the box, Reguilon looked to shoot, but Djenepo took his foot after the ball had gone and VAR this time came down on Tottenham’s side, with the foul  occurring on the 18 yard line.  The look on Ward-Prowse’s face was worth it on it’s own, but Son took the responsibility from the penalty spot and buried the ball to the keeper’s left sending McCarthy the wrong way to give Tottenham a lead with a minute of normal time left.

There was six minutes of added time to negotiate before they could celebrate a win and you would have thought that the opposition would give it all in the last few minutes, although they had looked well off the pace in the second half. Apart from one long throw in the first added minute, SCBC offered little and Spurs managed the game to the end and took a useful three points.

Two wins in 14 games before this match was the visitors’ record and despite looking like world-beaters in the first half, their lack of stamina let them down and it is easy to see how they have lost the most Premier League points from winning positions. Their passing in the second half was shocking and they wilted when Spurs were still able to keep going. Similarly Tottenham’s record of five points from the last fifteen available was not exactly likely to worry the top four, but make no mistake, another performance like this and Manchester City could be out of sight by half-time. Spurs need to up the tempo and increase their energy to shut down space to have a chance. City had to play the second half of their game tonight with ten men as John Stones was red carded, so it might have taken a bit out of them, although probably not enough to affect how they play on Sunday.

Getting rid of Mourniho before he won a trophy might have saved the club some money, but let’s hope Ryan will have something private in mind to go about saving our season.

Stanford Rivers

Ryan Mason’s first game in charge of Spurs saw him become the Premier League’s youngest ever manager.