I took the opportunity to visit the Deva Stadium and watch our Youth tean in action against the Chester Youth side in the 3rd Round of the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday,13th December.
We lined up as follows:
GK David Button
RB Takura Mtandari
LB Cian Hughton
CB Joe Martin
CB Chris Casey
RMF Kyle Fraser-Allen
MF Jake Livermore(Cpt)
MF Troy Archibald- Henville
LMF David Hutton
FW Tom Pekhart
FW Daniel Hutchins
Subs:-
RB Adam Smith (on for Joe Martin -inj)
LMF Andros Townsend (on for Takura Mtandani - tactical)
FW Luke Medley (on for Daniel Hutchins - tactical)
Unused sub: Ritchie Stroud(GK)

Missing : Alex Smith(RB), Terry Dixon(FW), Jamie Davis(RW) & Matt Wells(MF).
General information:
Button(Eng Youth U19), Martin, Davis & Pekhart are full professionals. Hughton, Archibald-Henville,Stroud, Wells are in their final year as trainees/apprentices. The rest are in their first years except Townsend & Smith(adam) who are associate schoolboys.

Report.
Chester just about deserved the win through their tenacity, team spirit and directness. The game (lasting 90 tedious minutes) involved no more than 5 direct shots on goal(totaling both teams efforts!).
The much hyped Pekhart and to a lesser extent our captain Livermore were extremely disappointing. Looking at the faces of some of the Spurs players (and their general demeanour) suggested arrogance and distain, strutting around the field as if they had already reached the heady heights of pro football. I love Spurs but by the end of the game I wanted the 'journeymen' of Chester to win. Pekhart was doing some spectacular diving as if pole axed by a 10 ton truck. It was disgraceful behaviour from a 17 year old. I hope to god Mr Inglethorpe and the other coaching staff get a grip of this behaviour especially when trying to win a pen (in other word stop the god damn cheating!). Livermore instead of driving on the Spurs by example or by verbal encouragement as the Captain he was petulant and uninspirational. Troy Archibald-Henville did care but what was he doing in MF in the first half amazes me. He constantly over hit his passes and did not have the vision or subtlety necessary for a mid field player. In the second half in his normal CB position i thought he was the best player on the pitch. David Button & Joe Martin looked OK and amongst the younger players Mtandari,Casey & Hutton were reasonable.
What has got to be remembered is that Spurs get the pick of the best young players as opposed to Chester who live of scraps. What worried me was that a welsh schoolboy (15 yo) in Chester's midfield (Owen) looked far better that at least 4 of our players. Another minor but to me staggering fact was that Chester had 5 subs on the bench but we were 1 light.(How is this possible). I expected Spurs to win but like in all cup games theres always the chance of a upset caused by fantastic defending and a fluke breakaway goal but in this match Chester were just as good as the starstruck wonder boys of Spurs. The Spurs youngsters better get real or they will find out quite quickly that they will not have a future of any meaning in pro soccer.
If I do seem angry it is because I love Spurs and I expect to see our players with at least the right attitude and a pride in their club and a realisation as to how fortunate they are. Unless Pekhart changes his attitude the fact that he is slow and cumbersome will ensure he won't go far.