Portsmouth v Spurs Reserves & Youth Match Reports

Attacking from the start Spurs had a shot cleared off the line in the fifth minute, as Simon Dawkins freed Kyle Fraser-Allen, who took the ball on and around the Pompey goalkeeper Begovic, only to roll the ball into a seemingly open goal.  However, he was not banking on Sowah, who got back to knock the ball away before it went over the line.  The ball was picked up by Alan Hutton, who crossed to Yaser Kasim at the far post, but he could not get his volley on target.

It was Kasim, who received a pass in the 19th minute from Jacques Maghoma and made a bit of space to get his shot off, but it was blocked.  Simon Dawkins was alert to the loose ball and fired it into the net from inside the six yard box to give Tottenham the lead.  Spurs continued to keep the pressure on and in the 32nd minute, Kasim was thwarted when Begovic stopped his shot from Dawkins’ low cross at the far post.  A couple of minutes later, Portsmouth had their first opportunities, but great blocking from Gilberto and Takura Mtandari stopped Cuvelier and Nlundulu, before the last shot flew wide from Kilby.

Just before the break, Begovic was once more in action with a palm away from Fraser-Allen, who was well set up by Kasim.   Straight after the interval, Spurs went close again through Maghoma and on the hour the Pompey keeper had his hands warmed by another shot from the Congolese striker, who finished off good work from Livermore and Hutton to shoot from 15 yards out.  Hutton was involved again in the 80th minute, as he put Mtandari away and his cross took Begiovic by surprise and it grazed the crossbar and went over.  There was one last save for the home goalie as Spurs dominated the second half, as Mtandari almost curled a shot from just inside the box past the keeper, but he stretched out his left hand to stop the effort, but could not stop Tottenham returning home with the three points.

Teams :
Portsmouth –  Asmir Begovic, Mantyla, Sowah (Martin 64), Marlon Pack, Woodford, Luka Wilkinson, Gael Nlundulu, Florent Cuvelier, Gazet du Chatelier (Alors 46), Kilby, Traore (Smith 46).
Unused subs. : –  Stewart, Goddard
Spurs – Ben Alnwick, Cian Hughton, Gilberto, Jake Livermore, Takura Mtandari, Kyle Fraser-Allen, Jacques Maghoma, Simon Dawkins, Yaser Kasim (Josh Ekim 73), David Hutton
Unused subs. : – Lee Butcher, Adam Smith, Jake Nicholson, Sam Cox
Attendance : – 

Nlundulu’s sixth minute header should have put Pompey one up, but he missed the target and Traore did the same to Thomas’ 15th minute free-kick.  In between Taarabt’s shot had to be taken at the second attempt by Ashdown and on 28 minutes Ghaly got on the end of David Hutton’s free-kick, but could not get his header near goal.  However, two minutes later, he struck a shot from 15 yards out that struck the upright and bounced out with the keeper unmoved.  On the half hour, Taarabt touched a free-kick aside to Charlie Daniels, who hit a low drive from 30 yards out and it went into the net off the post to make it 1-0 to Tottenham.

The lead lasted just three minutes, with Kilbey getting on the end of Duffy’s cross, after Little played him in, to head past Cesar from close range.  That could have become 2-1 to the visitors in the 40th minute, when Nlundulu got on the end of a long ball and struck a fierce shot that flew off the angle as it went over.  Instead, it was Spurs who went into the break in the lead, as the ball was worked between Taarabt and Ghaly, leaving the ball for the Frenchman to shoot at goal.  The effort took a flick off defender Pack and went past Ashdown a minute before half-time.  There was still time for Cesar to keep out a shot from Thomas in added time, by pushing it aside.

The second half was full of chances, with Tottenham out of the blocks quickest, as Hutton slid the ball to Taarabt and he laid on a shot for Daniels, but he hit his shot well wide, with only the keeper to beat.  Fifteen minutes in, Kieran McKenna and Taarabt set up Hutton, but he could only hit the keeper with his shot.

Spurs were made to pay when Portsmouth levelled in the 65th minute.  Kilbey’s downward header was well kept out by Cesar and the keeper reacted well to deny the same player from the rebound, but Nlundulu was on hand to score from 10 yards and make it 2-2.  Things got worse five minutes later as Kilbey once more caused problems, with a header from Duffy’s ball in that beat Cesar and made it 3-2 to the away team.

Spurs came back into it, but had to wait until the last ten minutes to force Pompey back.  Taarabt struck the angle with a shot from the right side of the penalty area after Ghaly and Daniels presented the opportunity, then Charlie Daniels’ low ball into the penalty area failed to get the finishing touch from Alex Olsen and the chance to equalise had gone.

Richie’s 25 yard strike went well over the bar, while Danny Rose curled a 20 yard free-kick but with insufficient power to beat Begovic after 34 minutes.  Two minutes later Portsmouth scored what was to be the only goal of the game.  Richie’s raking pass picked out Songo’o and the midfielder moved infield leaving Dervite behind him and unleashed a low shot that skidded off the turf as it flew past David Button in the Tottenham goal.

Button had to be on his toes five minutes before the break, when Songo’o’s 25 yard fizzing shot was finger-tipped over the bar.  Spurs almost got back in it with 43 minutes gone, as David Hutton, Dawkins and Rose set up Townsend, whose shot was blocked wide and from the resulting corner, Troy Archibald-Henville headed wide.

After the break, Wilson hit an 18 yard free-kick just over the top, then struck a fierce 20-yarder just too high.  With 12 minutes remaining, Archibald-Henville dwelt on the ball and Songo’o took it off him and put in Subitoc, who managed to side-foot his shot over the bar with the goal in front of him from 10 yards out.  Right at the death, Spurs might have earned a point when substitute Kyle Fraser-Allen put a cross to Pekhart at the far post.  His header found Hutchins, who laid the ball to Danny Rose to shoot, but Duffy dived in to block the effort and preserve the home side’s win.

Teams :
Portsmouth –   Asmir Begovic, Blackman, Aubey, Duffy, Ward, Wilson, Motumbo, Christophe, Subotic, Songo’o, Richie
Subs not used :  Smith, Udoji, Govas, Reynolds, Parris Cowan-Hall
Spurs –  David Button, Chris Gunter, Cian Hughton, Troy Archibald-Henville, Dorian Dervite (Joe Martin 46), David Hutton, Danny Rose, Jake Livermore (David Hutchins, 87), Andros Townsend (Kyle Fraser-Allen, 66), Tomas Pekhart, Simon Dawkins
Subs not used :  Oscar Jansson, Takura Mtandari
Attendance : –  ,

Teams :
Portsmouth –  .
Subs not used : 
Spurs –
Subs not used :
Attendance : –  ,

Spurs had their goal-scoring chances, but did not take them, while Portsmouth took their – two in the first half and an own goal from Mark Entwistle in the second to rack up  3-0 win.

Teams :
Spurs –  Tony Parks, Mark Entwistle, Paul Baxter, Ian Culverhouse, Simon Webster, Glen Alzapiedi, Robert Brace, Allan Cockram, Paul Wilkins, Pat Corbett, Jimmy Bolton
Sub. not used :
Portsmouth –  .
Subs not used : 
Attendance : –  ,

Teams :
Spurs –  Ditchburn, Hills, Henry, Brittan, Clarke, Walley, Bing, Dulin, Duquemin, Wilkie, Dyson
Portsmouth – 
Attendance : –   8,400 

On a chilly night, the game took a while to warm up, with Portsmouth going close with a seventh minute Goddard free-kick flying over the bar from 20 yards and then Dean Parrett forced Liam O’Brien to save his low drive that looked as though it might curl in from 25 yards out four minutes later.  With quarter of an hour gone, Ryan Fredericks broke down the right and beat his marker, then cut inside to hit a shot that the Pompey goalie pushed out.

Halfway through the half, Nlundulu slung in a cross to the far post from the right and Martin took the ball down before losing his cool and firing too high.  The play changed to the other end and Fredericks played a low ball into the area, but Parrett’s shot was over the bar.  Shots from Jake Nicholson and Paul-Jose Mpoku were hit straight at O’Brien and then a long ball up-field was missed by Stephen Caulker and Martin got in behind to fire just over the goal.  In typical cup-tie tradition, it was end to end, with Spurs breaking straight away and Parrett played in Mpoku, but his shot was once more too near the keeper. 

With five minutes to the break Mpoku went closer, forcing the O’Brien to stretch and fingertip his drive over the crossbar with another effort a minute later when Tom Carroll surged into the box and his low ball in was met by Fredericks, beating Tsovolos and Nagri to the ball, but only managing to nudge the ball wide.  Portsmouth had a good chance before the teams went off and Ciftci released Nlundulu on the right wing, before cutting inside to fire an effort that was heading in until Jamie Butler pushed it over.

The second half started with Spurs on the attack, as John Bostock set up Harry Kane for a shot that went way too high and then Carroll put a ball into Kane on the left hand side of the area and he tried to beat the keeper at his near post, but O’Brien had it covered.  The goalie was in action again in the 51^st minute, when he did well to keep out Jesse Waller-Lassen’s shot and then from the corner, he pushed Caulker’s header over the top.  Caulker again troubled O’Brien with a header, capitalising on a mis-hit shot from Bostock with 53 minutes gone.

An attack on the Pompey left saw Ciftci create some space for a shot and the ball curled in past Butler with 62 minutes on the clock.  Spurs needed to get a goal back and pressurised the Portsmouth goal for the remaining 30 minutes.

Shortly after the goal, Bostock fired in a low cross that forced Nagri into slicing the ball over his own bar from close range, then, after Kane’s right wing cross cleared everyone in the area, O’Brien reacted well to get a hand to Carroll’s shot and take it over the bar.

With a quarter of an hour to go, Parrett bent a 20 yard shot wide and then Fredericks hit a cross-shot that went close to going in and close to Bostock’s lunge, but missed both.  O’Brien was the saviour for Pompey once more, when Carroll put in a ball from the left and Kane met it with a header that the keeper grabbed with a dive to his right.  When the keeper was finally beaten by a shot, Portsmouth still had a clean sheet, as Kudos Oyenuga seized on Gregory’s error and curled around the keeper, but also around the post.

In the last minute of normal time, Parrett’s right wing free-kick found Oyenuga’s head, but he could not get over it and the ball rippled the roof of the net.  There was one more opportunity in added time, when Bostock played McBride in on the right wing and he fired a low ball across goal, which was nearly touched in by Oyenuga at the near post, but the ball ran away and with it Tottenham’s Youth Cup chances for another season.

Teams :
Spurs –  Butler, Waller-Lassen, Caulker, Byrne, Carroll, Fredericks (McBride 90), Bostock, Parrett, Nicholson, Mpoku (Oyenuga 62), Kane
Subs not used :  Archer, Durojaiye, Francis-Angol
Portsmouth –  O’Brien, Gregory, Ryan, Nagri, Tsovolos (Seeley 83), Nlundulu, Goddard, Cuvelier, Martin, Cifti, Walshe (Navas 58).
Subs not used : Stockford, Jennings, Smith
Attendance : –  1,000

Spurs continued to control the game and scored on 65 minutes when M’Poku crossed for Laste Dombaxe to take the ball down with a good touch and finish clinically.  As the team tired, Pompey started to press for an equaliser, but with 10 minutes remaining, 14 year old Darren McQueen came off the bench to score his first Spurs goal five minutes later to move past a defender and hit the ball home from a couple of yards outside the box to wrap up the 2-0 win.

Teams :
Portsmouth –  .
Subs not used :
Spurs –  Archer, Barthram (Munns 75), Byrne, Durojaiye, Francis-Angol, Dombaxe (Tapping 70), Pritchard (McQueen 80), Carroll, Nicholson, M’Poku, Oyenuga.
Sub. not used :  Stewart
Attendance : –  ,

It took a goal just before half-time to give the home side the lead, but ten minutes into the second period, Tottenham hit back with a goal from Danny Rose, when he ran through onto a long pass and took it on to score.  Parity lasted only a short time, as Portsmouth regained the lead with a goal, although a 70th minute leveller at 2-2 from Kyle Fraser-Allen came from Rose’s cross and was neatly placed into the bottom corner of the goal with a shot bent round the keeper.

Spurs then went for the winning goal, but left themselves open at the back, leaving an opportunity for Pompey to net the winner.

Tottenham were without some regular starters and had to draft in some Under-16s, but the tiredness they exhibited mentally and physically showed in their performance and the end result.

Teams :
Spurs – Jansson, Mtandari, Hutchins, Cox, Shehu (Asajile 46), C Butcher, Fraser-Allen, Ekim (Davis 55), Obika, Mason (Nicholson  80), Rose
Sub. not used : Dalton
Portsmouth –  .
Subs not used :
Attendance : –  ,

Early in the second half, Kevin Smith’s shot was handled by a defender on the goal-line and Vic Hardwicke stuck the resulting penalty away.  Tottenham’s second goal came ten minutes later, when Scott-Aaron Houghton raced away and tried a shot from 30 yards that rattled the crossbar, bounced down and Ollie Morah was alert to head the ball into the net.  Having had control of the match after half-time, an untidy goal by Portsmouth with ten minutes to go caused Spurs to defend solidly to hold out against Pompey’s late surge.

Teams : –
Spurs : –  Ian Walker, Luke Young, Warren Hackett, Neil Smith, Stuart Nethercott, Vic Hardwicke, Andrew Marlowe (Mark Hall 60), Kevin Smith, Ollie Morah, Anthony Potts, Scott-Aaron Houghton
Unused sub. : – Steven Bence
Portsmouth : –
Attendance :-   ,

The game was halted when David Tuttle suffered an injury after clashing with the Pompey goalkeeper in the first half, but he recovered after being taken to a local hospital.

The winning goal came when Andy Theodosiou headed home from a corner.

Teams : –
Spurs : –  Ian Walker, Dave McDonald, Hall, Ian Hendon, Andy Theodosiou, Neil Carney, Neil Smith (Jamie Redknapp 70), Peter Garland, David Tuttle (Lee Fulling 20), Martin McIntosh, Steve Smart
Portsmouth : –
Attendance :-   ,

Paul Wilkins set the tone with an early goal for Tottenham, adding another with Jimmy Bolton netting another to make it 3-1 at half-time.  Little did Pompey realise was about to happen as Wilkins and Bolton scored two more each, with Anderson Rollock and Chris Harvey making it nine goals for Spurs.  A penalty awarded against Pat Corbett just after the eighth Tottenham goal was converted by Portsmouth to take a little consolation back to the South Coast with them.

Manager Ron Henry said, “We could have had even more.  Our finishing was powerful and the build-up was equally good, yet Portsmouth had a good share of the play.”

Teams : –
Spurs : –  G. Brown, Kevin Dickenson, Terry Emms, Pat Corbett, Chris Harvey, Jimmy Bolton, Ian Crook, Paul Wilkins, Alex Hamill, Anderson Rollock
Portsmouth : –
Attendance :-   ,

A first minute goal set Tottenham back on their heels ad it took until the 30 minute mark for Spurs to get back on level terms, with Kevin Stead firing home from 20 yards out.  Spurs took off Gary Anderson at half-time with Des Walker replacing him in defence.

It took a second half penalty, given for a foul, that went in off the post for Pompey to claim a 2-1 win.

Teams : –
Spurs : –  S. Letch, M. Perry, Chris Hughton, A. Fenn, Phil Holyoak, Gary Anderson (Des Walker 46), Leo Lisanti, O’Brien, Kevin Stead, Mark Falco, Imre Varadi
Portsmouth : –
Attendance :-   ,

A sleepy moment in defence saw Portsmouth take the lead in the first half, but a free kick produced an equaliser from Mark Falco just after the half hour.  Just a few minutes later, a clearance by the home defence fell to Gary O’Brien and he fired the ball back from 25 yards to find the net.

Tottenham had to defend well against a Portsmouth side seeking an equaliser, but kept them out, as did Mark Kendall, who saved a penalty when Paul Miller had been penalised.

Teams :
Portsmouth : –
Spurs : –  Mark Kendall, S. Mabey (Toyin Okitipki), Chris Hughton, Phil Holyoak, Terry Boyle, Paul Miller, Stuart Beavon, Gary Anderson, Mark Falco, Ray Ryan, Gary O’Brien
Attendance : –   , 

Tottenham took the tie to another game on the South Coast thanks to goals from Mark Falco and Ray Ryan.

Teams :
Portsmouth : –
Spurs : –  Mark Kendall, S. Mabey, Gary Anderson, Phil Holyoak, Terry Boyle, Paul Miller, Micky Hazard (Toyin Okitipki), Stuart Beavon, Mark Falco, Ray Ryan, Gary O’Brien
Attendance : –   , 

Teams :
Portsmouth : –
Spurs : – Markwick, Barwick, S. Cavanagh, A. Shirley (K. Ducker), Holyoak, G. Lucas, Bradbury, Beavon, K. Stead, Pace, M. Cleaver
Attendance : –   , 

Teams :
Spurs : – Markwick, I. Smith, M. Stead, K. Barrett, Thorn (K. Stead), Brotherston, Wade, Robinson, Hoddle, Hyams
Portsmouth : –
Attendance : –   ,

The team dominated Portsmouth and it was a fine all-round performance that should have reaped a bigger win.  The team were sent on the way halfway through the first half when Glenn Hoddle scored a spectacular goal from a free-kick that ended up flying into the top corner of the net.

The second period saw Spurs go on to add goals from Gary Hyams, who started the move by winning the ball in his own half before bursting forward 70 yards with it to fire home.  Late into the match, Gary Bacon’s free-kick from near the corner flag was headed in by Hoddle to round off the 3-0 victory.

Teams :
Portsmouth –
Spurs – Cranstone, I. Smith, M. Stead, Keeley, Walford, Barwick, King, Hoddle, Robinson, Bacon, Hyams.
Attendance : –   , 

Teams :
Portsmouth – 
Spurs –
Attendance : –   , 

Teams :
Spurs –
Portsmouth –
Attendance : –   ,