That is why I was so pleased with the performance yesterday. Grit and determination is the basis of a top team. The will to win and fight for every ball comes before the fancy football and it is something we had last year, probably because of the presence of davids and tainio, but that we have lacked at times this term.

If we can get it back, we will get points on the road!

fair play to Ghaly - he is still getting familiar with the Prem but is showing some skill and guts - more to follow from him I think.

As an aside I think we need to be aware that not every player can settle easily into the EPL - think Henry when he first joined the lot down the road. Berby seems to have found his feet (but I think there is more to come from him) and Ghaly, Zokora are part of the way there. Z will be a legend - remember he has been suspended, injured and had malaria AND played in the WC - people should give him time.

I think yesterday we saw a real away display - nothing brilliant, but a display that bore fruit nevertheless. To often we've trounced a team at home and simply thought we could carry on where we left off away, prancing down easy street. Zokora (a VERY poor away performer for us this term) was left out; Berbatov put in one of his best away displays in the league.

Surely we need to continue in this vain, we need to crawl before we can walk away from home. If we'd've just had midtable away form - with our home form - we'd be third now. Clearly we've overstretched ourselves and played too much pretty stuff. I hope that Jol has reviewed this and learned the way to go in the second half of the season.

In these days of histrionic writhing and dying infantryman-style collapses at the slightest contact between opponent and face, it was really interesting to see what footballers do when they are ACTUALLY hurt. No rolling and crying from ghaly...just a look of shock and bewilderment. I know a refs job is hard...but surely if he sees a player rolling around on the ground, its a fair bet that he's faking it.

I completely agree. I broke my kneecap a few weeks ago. It is by far the most painful injury I have had. I didn't roll around at all. Not because I'm tough, but because the instant pain followed by shock left me absolutely paralysed on the deck, clutching my knee and shouting "F*CK" over and over. Which I am sure Ghaly would have said if his mouth wasn't full of blood and teeth.

"If you are down 1-0 you always think it could be one of those days, but the only thing we lacked was a real aggression," reasoned Martin. "It is a bit of a problem, we've got such talented players, but sometimes you need to get stuck in a bit more and that is something we've got to learn."

Our biggest problem is in the middle of the pack as we do not run hard, do not get close to the opposition to tackle them. No aggression and no movement off the ball. we do not support the strikers when the ball is in the opposition box.If you look at the other teams(good ones) you will see the amount of bodies they normally have in the opposition box compare to us.

Hossam Ghaly's brave behaviour merits more respect from all of us fans, particularly the ones who have been on his case of late.

His grit and determination is what heroes are made of and hopefully its served as a reminder to others in the squad that sometimes a few lost teeth are the price to be paid in order to secure important points for the team.

QUE VIVA LOS SPURS

I know exactly what Shirtfront is talking about, broke arm awhile ago, all i did was scream Fcuk repaetedley till they gave me some morphine

Fair play to Ghaly for getting his teeth into the game but unlike the above poster who says we'll be seeing more of him i cant see where he'll fit in when lennons back, he's a defencive midfielder and he's behind both Hudd and Zokora imo.

Certainly not. He gets into the box more than any one of our 462 central midfielders, including Jenas and Malbranque. He also has more assists per game than the others.

He's not even a little bit like a defensive midfielder and that also applied before he arrived at Tottenham.

ghaly showed his grit, an it'l only b a matter of time b4 he shows his tru quality! an no way hes a defensive midfielder, altho he playd ther for feyenoord at times its not his position, for alahly he was as attacking as an attacking mifielder got an thats y he did so well, cos he cud try hsi tricks, an if it worked it was brilliant, an if it didnt it wudnt mean a goal for opponents cos it was high up the field! ghaly will b a gr8 player, next season he'l b a very importantn player

I beg to differ sir, Ghaly IS a defensive midfielder and the stats, if they are stats, would suggest he gets forward more only because of the possition he's being asked to play.

First and formost, Ghaly is a defensive midfielder who has played the attacking role, a bit like Zokora but no where near as good .

On your above theory you make him sound more of a liability than an important player when playing Attacking, so you are saying we should play him in the defensive role so he wont be a liability to us?

I say we have better players than him for that position :duh:

Still think we were going to win until Jol gave up on the 3pts and brought Gardner on.

It was a good away point at a very difficult place to play which shows our away form is starting to improve. We were a little fortunate against them at home so I'll take 4 out of 6 against a good side.

The league is starting to shape up as expected, the top four, followed by Bolton, Pompey and us as the best of the rest.

As I've said all season we can expect Pompey and Bolton to struggle a bit more now due to their smaller squad sizes. I'd expect us to pass Portsmouth and to challenge Bolton for fifth by the end of the season. Not too worried if it's fifth or sixth as long as we qualify for the UEFA cup through the league, that way the cups become a bonus.

The team should start to really gel once we get Lennon, Jenas and King back so we should be in good shape for a realistic CL challenge next season.