Woolwich Wanderers (Home) 28.04.2024

Having made a lively attacking start, Spurs slipped behind.  Davies tried to hook a long pass forward into the box, but it was cleared and then Hojbjerg drove forward with the ball after Bentancur’s interception, but the referee decided to play on, even though no advantage came Tottenham’s way.  A free-kick was given to the other team, but Odegaard could only hit the Tottenham wall with it and then the ball travelled to the other end and Son laid it on for Maddison, who lifted his shot high into the North Stand.  In the next Woolwich attack a long ball went over the Spurs defence to Odegaard, who put Havertz in on goal, finishing with a shot that hit the post, then Vicario before going in, but there was no celebration, as Odegaard had been well offside.  It was a warning of what was to come, because 15 minutes in, a corner on their right was played in with pace to the near post and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who tried to get to the ball first and succeeded, only glancing the ball past Vicario, who was pinned in by White, Saliba and Gabriel.  

Surprisingly, a couple of set-pieces gave us opportunities to draw level.  Firstly a corner picked out Cristian Romero, but his header went over the bar and then a free-kick from the left found his head again, but this time, his far post header was kept down and bounced out off the outside of the post.  Spurs were millimetres away form equalising with 23 minutes gone, when a corner was cleared and a shot dug into the ground from Pedro Porro pinged about in the box, tried to be cleared, but it came off a defender dropping to Micky van de Ven, who fired it into the net.  As usual, a long VAR delay ensued, with the goal being ruled out for offside.  A goal then might have made the rest of the game very interesting. 

Within four minutes we were two goals down.  A quick break isolated Ben Davies, with Saka running at him and he came inside to shape a shot wide of Vicario’s dive to his right and it found the bottom corner of the net.  Spurs had been on the attack with Kulusevski cutting in from the right wing and making it into the box, but it looked as if he had over-balanced, but the ball ran to Maddison, who was caught, but VAR again ruled against Spurs.

Things were going from bad to worse, as Werner was injured in an attack soon after and had to be replaced by Brennan Johnson, which was a straight swap, but was probably a change that happened sooner than Ange would have liked.  Seven minutes before half-time, we were another goal down when almost a replica of the first goal happened, although this time Havertz was left a free header in the middle of the goal and he took it.  Having been weak at Newcash at corners, it is an issue that needs to be addressed as we can’t keep shipping goals from set-pieces.  Nor can we be so passive in the first half, as we don’t seem to be ready to play until after the break.

The game got littered with free-kicks and the only threat on goal came from Porro playing a great ball over the Woolwich back-line and Son was onto it, but couldn’t control his shot that was way too high.  We had a couple of corners (our first) in added time at the end of the first half, but nothing came from them and we went into half-time, with an interview with Steve Archibald, who had the unenviable task of trying to gee up the crowd with some hope for the second half.  Postecoglou decided that one way to gee up the team was to bring on Pape Matar Sarr for Rodrigo Bentancur.

An early free-kick brought a header from Tomiyasu, who put it too high, but it was another free header allowed at a set-piece and it seemed that Cristian Romero was our main threat to the Goons, as he met Kulusevski’s cross, but flicked his header over the bar.  It was the old story that we started to play after half-time and Kulusevski started to make good runs that panicked their defence, Gabriel being forced into a desperate tackle in the box which was not deemed a foul.  When Woolwich had an attack (probably their only open play attack of the half), a ball in from the left wing found Saka in space in the box and his low shot was kept out by Vicario’s foot deep in his six-yard box. 

In addition to Kulusevski taking the ball at defenders, Johnson was working Tomiyasu and was getting a fair bit of joy there, so Martinelli was brought on for Trossard to try and use his speed to counter Brennan’s runs.  And when Ange brought on Richarlison for Maddison and Bissouma for Hojbjerg with 64 minutes on the clock, it brought an immediate response.  Not that it had much to do with us, but a back-pass to Raya saw Richi close him down, forcing him into indecision about what he was going to do with the ball, which he chipped weakly to Romero 22 yards out.  Our main threat to their goal proved to be just that as he moved the ball to the 18 yard line and with Raya retreating, he put the ball to the keeper’s right as he dived to his left.  So with less than half an hour left, Spurs were back in the game and for a central defender, Romero took his chance coolly.

Woolwich were rattled and forced into hoofed clearances just to get the ball away from their goal, although it was a bit interesting that Dejan was booked for his one foul in the match (probably rightly), while Tomiyasu committed three in the first ten minutes including a Sumo attack on Kulusevski.  When Davies was booked it was for a collection of fouls, so fair enough.  With free-kicks being played into our box, we were defending these better and repelled any further threat, apart from Partey being guilty (oh yes he was) of a crude foul to stop Son getting away from him.

The introduction of VAR is widely derided and the implementation is widely regarded as confusing and not as quick as it might be, but when a cross was cleared and Ben Davies went down under challenge from Rice inside the box and stayed down, play went on a long time before Oliver stopped play as he had been advised to got o the screen.  Having stopped play you knew it was going to be a penalty, as it would have gone on until the ball had gone out if it was just for him to look at it and decided that he was right in the first place.  So, he looked and he pointed to the spot.  Only having had one penalty before this and with Harry Kane having departed, Sonny stepped up to take the penalty and beat Raya with his shot, firing it high to the keeper’s right with enough pace to put it out of his reach.

It only left four minutes plus whatever paltry amount the ref would add on for the persistent time-wasting to try and force a third goal.  Ben couldn’t continue, so Gio Lo Celso came on in his place, but with free-kicks, corners to both sides and them taking the ball into the corner to try and run down time, which they did and then produced an extreme lack of class by taunting the Tottenham crowd.

The fact that Woolwich scored with three shots on target (one of them was not converted as Hojbjerg’s own goal doesn’t count in their stats) and we scored with our two on target points to a lack of quality in the match.  Our insistence in putting high crosses into the area was misguided, with Son unlikely to win a header against the giants in the Woolwich defence or taken in the air by Raya, who then rolled around on the floor and wandered around his box for an hour with it.  The referee’s constant pointing at his watch to indicate that he was going to add on time failed to be the case at the end of the match.  Two goals, substitutions, time-wasting and a VAR stoppage came to six minutes apparently. 

If only Spurs had been a little tighter in the first half, there may have been something to get out of the match, but going 0-3 down by half-time wasn’t salvageable.  Woolwich have a couple of years head start on us, so we might be able to make similar progress if we learn the lessons from our mistakes.

Pete Stachio

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