Leicester City (Home) 26.01.2025

Unfortunately, the bad run that Spurs are on brought with it a disruptive atmosphere as our leg weary and injury hit side had to take to the field without much chance of being given a rest with Maddison dropping out on the morning of the game with a calf problem and Sarr and Richarlison being less than 100% fit to play the whole game, nor was Bissouma, who didn’t make it off the bench, which wasn’t fully occupied anyway.  Rain was falling making the surface slick, which should have suited our passing, but in the event they often fell short of the player that they were intended tor each.  Leicester weren’t a lot better and to say that the first 15 minutes were untidy is an understatement.

It took four minutes for Justin to hit Son late, which was a recurring theme throughout the match and when he hauled Gray down from behind within two minutes, the referee chose only to have a word with him, when both were blatant fouls to stop Tottenham’s progress.  In between Porro looked for a direct ball down the middle that Richarlison almost got to before the keeper, but the ball ran through off the wet pitch and it might not have counted if he had got there first, as he bumped Faes and might have just been offside.  Leicester came forward with Kristiansen up the left wing and pulled the ball back to Ayew, who side-footed his shot at goal rather than putting his foot through it and Dragusin made a block in the area.    

Pape had a shot from outside the box that went in low but without enough power to worry the Leicester keeper, before the first of numerous “head injuries” stopped play with Ayew going down but not needing treatment funnily enough.  The play restarted with a drop ball for Spurs and it was moved out to Archie Gray on the left and his low ball across the box got caught under Lucas Bergvall’s feet, but he managed to poke it back to Porro, who thundered a shot at goal that the keeper pushed away.  Lucas hit a perfect cross-field ball to Son, who came in across from the left and hit a right-foot effort that the keeper touched wide at the foot of his left-hand post.  

A ridiculous decision by the referee to give handball against Sarr when he fell on the ball while going between Faes and El Khannouss, who came across to make contact with him without making any effort to get the ball was fairly typical of how things are going for Tottenham at the moment.  Ben Davies had to eb alert to move across to clear the ball after a ball in to Decordova-Reid looked dangerous, the Antonin Kinsky got down quickly to save a low drive from Justin.  Giving Justin a break, Ayew was the one to start committing fouls  and Kristiansen was doing the same on the other flank on Kulusevski.  One gave Spurs a free-kick that was swung in from the right and the keeper could only paw it away and when Son recycled the ball on the left, his cross beat the keeper and bounced away off the bar with half an hour gone.  Dragusin collected it beyond the far side of the box and his cross was met by Davies’ head, but it glanced off and went wide, with Sonny perhaps in a better position just behind the Welshman.  Tottenham retained possession after it was cleared a a booming ball out to the right was headed up in the air by Kristensen with Dejan getting the ball when it came to earth.  He passed inside to Sarr, who moved it back wide to Pedro and his dangerous cross was headed in at the far post by Richarlison, who had been pushed onto the ball by Justin with 32 minutes on the clock.

Harry Winks played a straight ball into the box for Justin to run onto and his shot caught the heel of Ben Davies taking the ball out for a corner, which Richarlison headed out for another and that one was met with a good punch by Toni.  They soon had another which came from Sarr’s block to El Khannouss’ shot from outside the box and Soumare was reprimanded for pushing Bentancur to the ground.  When it came in Bergvall’s challenge for the ball was enough to force Faes to head over, but he took a whack in the head and after a few rubs on his head got up and played on.  Ayew took Pape out when he went past him on the West Stand touchline, but the referee still failed to pull out a card.

Porro was played in with a ball over the top from Dragusin, but with few team-mates up with him, he decided to shoot from a narrow angle, which only ended up in the side-netting.

During the break Micky Hazard, Graham Roberts and Mark Falco shared their memories of Garry Brooke who recently passed away and it reminded us what a promising player Brooke was until he had a car crash that affected his career, although he recovered and went on to play for Noriwch City.

inside the first minute of the second half, Porro pressed high in the Spurs half and the ball was played around him, while Bentancur tackled Kristiansen with the ball running on to Soumare.  He played Decordova-Reid into the space down the left, from where his low ball into the area evaded Davies and Kinsky, allowing a Leicester forward to put the ball into an empty net from a yard out.  Five minutes later, Soumare picked off a Porro pass, when eh didn’t have many options to find a white shirt and when the ball was played infield to El Khannouss, nobody closed him down so he took the opportunity to shoot and found Toni’s bottom left-hand corner to put the Foxes ahead.  The “Levy Out” chants started again, as if he was responsible for the two goals, rather than getting behind the team who needed picking up.

When Richarlison was taken off, boos rang out as Mikey Moore came on and Reguilon replaced Pape Matar Sarr, pushing Archie Gray into midfield.  Ayew took Reguilon down form behind, but there was nothing more given than a free-kick, which was played around until Kinsky launched a long ball through the middle that Kulusevski got on the end off and hit a shot that caught a half-block from a defender and like Son’s on Thursday in Hoffenheim, the ball lifted up off the turf over the keeper, who this time just got a hand to it.  Our luck was out again, when it didn’t run to the incoming Moore, but was cleared by Justin.  

A ball forward from Porro was played with pace into Son’s feet and Justin just blatantly pushed him over, so what was the point of the talking to in the first half if you are just going to let players get away with more fouls ?  It was the height of irony when he did show a yellow card, but to Decordova-Reid for dissent !  The referee was obvious more concerned about his own sensitivities than the welfare of the players.  Anyway, Porro lined up the free-kick and again, it summed up our luck when his shot thumped against the crossbar off a slight deflection from the wall.   Some neat work on the left between Reguilon, Son and Gray saw the youngster break into the box and break a couple of tackled to poke the ball across the face of goal, with with no recognised centre forward on the pitch, no Spurs player was there to turn it in.  Porro then showed good footwork to beat three men, but with players awaiting a ball across goal, he hit it at the near post and put it straight into the side-netting.

The “game-Management” that Leicester were employing was in full flow, with time wasting at every goal-kick and playing down down quicker than South Coast Big Club.  The referee showed weakness when Decordova-Reid moved the ball for a free-kick back five yards and then wouldn’t get back ten yards, so the ref failed to honour the instructions that they had been given about delaying restarts and told him to get back without adding a second yellow card to the one he received just minutes before.  The official was suckered again when a high ball was played up to Ayew and Reguilon nudged him in the chest, with the Leicester man going to ground holding his face.  He handed out a yellow card to Regi, but if that was a booking how was it that Ayew had got this far in the game without seeing at least one ?   The lack of equity in applying the laws is fast becoming a joke and with the goalkeeper being allowed to take so much time at every kick-out, the way to put a stop to it isn’t to point to your watch, but to take action for an offence against the laws of the game.  71 minutes it took for the yellow card to be shown to Justin for a foul on Moore.  That was about 69 minutes too late.

Dragusin flashed a header over the bar after the keeper had punched the ball out, with Vestergaard going down injured after the ball had gone off, but he didn’t need treatment, so more time wasted.  Ayew then went down with a head injury a minute later and did need treatment, so had to go off for 30 seconds and then wanted to come back onto the pitch straight away and when told he couldn’t he wanted to come on when the play was right in front of him.  Amazing that he doesn’t know how the game works.  Winks was booked for a challenge on Archie Gray that would more readily be witnessed in rugby league.  El Khannouss when down injured int he centre-circle and changes from the bench were delayed until after his treatment, although he was one of the players going off.  Once more the referee allowed it all to continue and one of the subs Buonanotte was straight in the book for a cowardly trip on Gray.

Sergio made a dart into the box past Justin and his low ball had to be cleared before it got into the goalmouth.  The corner was cleared but played back in and Dragusin won the ball at the far post, with the keeper taking the ball high under the bar before hitting the ground full well knowing that the game would be stopped and that he was the one who could not be asked to leave the pitch after having treatment.  81 minutes in, the ref decided that the goalkeeper had been time-wasting as he dragged out taking a goal-kick. 

With five minutes left a corner cleared out of the box ended with Porro drilling in a low drive that got deflection and the keeper had to take at the second attempt.  Leicester made more subs, with one of the players stopping to turn to their fans and applaud while being “hurried” off by the ref.  Skippy made his return off the bench and it was very odd seeing him in a shirt that wasn’t Lilywhite.

Daka went down holding his head after being challenged in the air by Dragusin, so another break in play as the match went into the third of nine minutes of added time.  Archie Gray left the pitch to be replaced by Will Lankshear to try and get something out of the match with five minutes remaining.  When Coulibaly caught Mikey with a hand in his face, did he go down ?  No, he just got on with the game.  Moore was on the end of a precise cross from Dejan and volleyed at goal, with the keeper blocking it with his body, but Mikey had moved just too early and was offside anyway. 

The predictable boos came from the Spurs sections at the final whistle and they were not the only abuse thrown down from the terraces.  Frankly the tiresome “Levy Out” chanting, which started in the second minute of the match, does nothing to generate a positive support for the team and puts the club into the same basket of other clubs where toxic atmospheres were generated.  It gives the media something to write about, radio phone-ins to focus in on and anyone who believes that this approach will make him leave the club is deluded.  And if he does go, who do you want to come in ?  Some oil-rich member of a royal family who will turn the club into one that potentially would be open to financial scrutiny, albeit with a trophy room that is full when for so long Spurs fans have been  complaining about money buying trophies at other clubs ?   Doesn’t that smack of hypocrisy ?

I’m not sure I understand this level of support – if that is what it is.  It is like people would rather get on the club’s back from minute one and not produce an atmosphere that would intimidate opposition teams.  There are games when that is done (the odd few being against City, Gooners and West Ham) but mostly our new stadium is not a place where teams fear to come, not just because the team aren’t playing well, but because clubs like Wolves come here and make more noise.  I know that doesn’t win matches, but it is surely better than airing your dirty laundry in public.  Do it after the match, do it outside the ground, but if you do it inside the stadium, don’t be surprised by what happens.  

Barry Morris

• Both teams wore black armbands and there was a minute’s applause before the match for Garry Brooke, who died recently.
• Richarlison’s goal was Tottenham’s 7,000th goal in the Football League.