- Jun 5, 2004
- 32,221
- 64,290
- Staff
- #1
[banner by the massively awesome chrissivad]
I'm not quite sure what's going on this year. For the fourth time in a row on a Tottenham Hotspur Matchday, the weather ignored it's midweek form and played a blinder in the sunshine stakes.
Four bottles of water in the pub later and no queue at the food counter in block 31, and I was sitting in my seat with a glorious Chicken Balti pie warming my legs through my jeans. Sometimes only a pie will do it, and I'd even left the pub early to guarantee some Chicken Balti heaven.
I actually got a chance to watch the teams warm-up too, and was trying to work out if there was any link between those wearing green bibs and those not. I couldn't. But for that I'm blaming the pie, and its meaty goodness distracting me from the warm-ups. The only other thing to note from the warm-ups was Burnley's woeful finishing. They were doing the standard "feed the ball in to the coach, coach lays it off, shoot" drill and they were plain awful!
So, to the game ...
***
It was a hushed crowd, one that had a tinge of worry about it, suffering in confidence after back-to-back League defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea. But from the early exchanges things looked quite promising, Keane and Defoe were not getting picked up by the Burnley midfield or the defence and Keafoe were free to take balls in to the feet and hold them up without any real pressure.
The first chance of the game fell to Robbie Keane. Huddlestone threaded the ball through the eye of a violated needle and Robbie Keane gazelled onto it, a quick peek up and fired it low across the keeper. But it would be the Burnley fans booming out "BEEEEEEEASSSSST" after this encounter, as the big keeper saved from the Irish striker.
This seemed to get the backs up of the crowd. Hands on heads all around the ground accompanied disgruntled chatter. He should have scored.
Burnley would then make one of their only contributions of the game in the next 'play'. A hopeful punt down their left side and Corluka tried to shield the ball out. With the ball running out of pace, Nugent nipped in and after a deflection off Huddlestone, he caused Cudicini to make a save; although not that cleanly.
I've noticed that our Carlo tends to let balls bounce off him. He rarely takes the ball cleanly, either requiring a bounce or two, or simply punching or fighting the ball off. I prefer my keeper to catch the easier tamer shots. But our clean sheet was still in tact - and that's not something I've said a lot this year!!
Jermaine Jenas had looked lively in the game so far, full of running and ever-willing to receive the ball in the way that I used to love Michael Carrick doing. And strangely, Mr Palacios had been a bit careless in possession, something that's been creeping into his game over the last couple of matches. This still doesn't outweigh the fantastic tackling contribution he always brings to our team though.
***
[al]
Keano vs. Beast
[/al]
Before long, we were nervously waiting on the result of another Keane vs. Beast encounter. Defoe had been put through on the right hand side of the box, and Andre The Bikey gave the referee the chance to give the easiest penalty of his career. Absolute stonewaller, stupid defending - but who am I to complain?
Keane stepped up and planted a perfect penalty into the bottom right hand corner, sending a flying Beast to the left. Keano's first goal at home since the City penalty last year, and the first goal in front of me at "my" end. There were murmurings that Defoe should've taken the penalty, and I'm not sure I give much credence to that. Defoe's penalty record is not that great, and for all his glorious strikes of the ball, I think Keane has more bottle in those situations. (I know this point may cause some rumblings, but Keane's age/experience pays dividends here and that's why he's my choice for penalties).
To our horror, Fletcher then equalised for Burnley. Well that's what all the Burnley fans thought for a good 30 seconds. Not being a crowd to miss an opportunity for derision, the White Hart Lane faithful then started celebrating. Repeatedly. For anything: throw-ins, passes, you name it. Not sure the Burnley fans took it that well, but then we couldn't really hear them anyway.
For our dominance in attack, the score was only 1-0 and soon enough Defoe had a great chance to double our lead. Keane found Jenas in space, who back-flicked Defoe in, one-on-one. He struck the ball clean and true, but alas 6 inches wide of the Beast's right hand post. His radar misfiring, our scoreline not increasing. He should have scored.
At this point, I think it's a good time to talk about Huddlestone and his seamless transition to centre half. Granted, the blunt Burnley attack is a good time to make this transition. What he gives us is a proper ball-playing centre half. I don't expect him to play there for too many games but his distribution and reading of the game (aside from the earlier Nugent chance) were exemplary and I was an impressed Stoof.
Andy Gray likes to patronise us week in week out with "A 1-0 lead is never enough in the Premier League", and thankfully Jermaine Jenas - after some neat work from Robbie Keane playing in Kranjcar - carefully aimed his shot against Jordan's knees and gave us a 2-0 lead. It's a dying art to aim for the defender's knees to give the ball a bit of spin, and it's something I'm glad that Jenas is mastering. :wink: He's still "shit" though, according to some. :roll:
That was all for the half. We did switch off a bit in the last five minutes. But the whistle went, and I could relieve myself of the Stoof-processed contents of the bottles of water.
***
[ar]
Keano celebrates his first goal in front of a relieved Park Lane
[/ar]
It was a terribly sluggish start to the second half which saw Defoe get subbed off for having another one-on-one saved. Or so I thought at the time. On watching some replays and reading the early press, he hit the ball so hard that the force of the Beast's Belly against the ball caused Defoe's hand to break. Or something like that. :wink: Still, this gave us a chance to sing "He's long, he's tall, he hates the Arsenal, Peter Crouch". Well, a portion of the crowd anyway.
***
PALACIOS IN BAD TACKLE SILLY FREE KICK SHOCKER! Yes, you guessed it, Wilson dived in a bit too enthusiastically and gave the Burnley fans a chance to make some noise. Cudicini then decided that he wanted to give them a bit more to make some noise about. Catching the freekick simply is too boring. Instead Carlo decided to bounce the ball a couple of times and do his Harlem Globetrotter audition in front of Robbie Blake. Blake hit the post and thankfully the ball found itself at a defender's foot and Lennon calmed everything down on the right hand side. Silly Carlo.
As the game drifted past the hour mark and past our sluggish restart, Jenas found some space in the middle of the park and played an exquisite ball to Aaron Lennon on the right hand side. The little winger tickled the ball in to Robbie Keane who was ready, willing and able to plant the ball gloriously into the roof of the net to round off a fantastic move and double his tally for the game. That was it, game out of sight. And you could feel the crowd slowly falling in love again with their Irish talisman. It seems some fans still aren't willing to forgive Mr Keane for his Liverpool transgressions and yet the same people standing near me who call him a "****" were singing "There's only one Keano", albeit begrudgingly
To my own personal joy, Keane soon added a third and a fourth. His hattrick goal the result of a ball over the top from Huddlestone stepping out of defence. It brought back memories of the third goal in the Ar5ena1 game and that is never a bad thing. The fourth coming from Cudicini's hoof and a perfectly placed 3MP flick-on. The Beast should have saved this one, but Keano couldn't believe his luck as he scored four in one game for the first time in his professional career.
5-0 wasn't flattering on us, I don't think. We created a lot of chances, but it spoke more of Burnley's inability to pick up Keane and Defoe's movement, and failure to cope with the aerial threat and quick feet of Crouch. We had a further couple of chances too. Keane on the end of a great Kranjcar cross, but bobbled up and Keane didn't make a clean contact to grab his fifth. He later unselfishly squared to Palacios whose shot was blocked. But the whistle blew and we were back to winning ways.
***
A mention should go to the man who fittingly belted out "Stand up for Chaz and Dave" (following Dave's retirement). The loudest crowd chants of the game were Chaz and Dave related, and this chant started a Chaz and Dave Medley in the Park Lane-Shelf corner. Brilliant.
Bassong impressed me on the day too. He looks every bit like a defender that can do a really good job for us; he's steadily reading the game better and getting used to his teammates. I also don't have a bad word for BAE, he's come on leaps and bounds since his early days with the club and with Bale giving him good competition for places in that left back slot, he'll only get better too.
But the day belonged to Robbie Keane. I'm not ashamed to admit he's been my favourite Spurs player for a while now, and to see him score four goals at home in the glorious Saturday sunshine was definitely a special moment for me and one I'll always remember.
That wraps it up for this week. Thanks for reading Stoof in the Shelf sponsored by White Hart Lane Chicken Balti Pies ... glory comes in pie colours.
