Winning Has Never Felt So Boring

The clocks went forward an hour this weekend but that was not the only hour that I lost this weekend. After thrity minutes passed at White Hart Lane, Tottenham v Portsmouth ended as a contest. Three points were required and they were achieved with relative ease. Clean sheets are nothing to be sniffed at either but our game against Pompey had to be the most underwhelming 2-0 victory ever recorded. This is not to say our win against rock bottom Portsmouth was unimpressive.

The manner of our win is a good indicator of a new, more professional approach our team has taken on this season. The second half consisted of Portsmouth giving up and us being satisfied enough with our position. Although not conducive to entertainment it got results. I was urging the team to be more positive and to destroy our opponents but within hindsight less is more was probably the appropriate way to play out the game as opposed to kicking a team when they are down.

Taking the game to Pompey with reckless abandon in the second half may have seen us score a couple more however the casual nature of our victory will better serve the players stamina with a hectic schedule in the offing. Reserving energy seemed to be the order of the second half from Redknapp and we snuffed the threat from Portsmouth without really breaking into a sweat. The game itself had very little to offer however there was some good to observe.

Kyle Walker made his first appearance in a lilywhite shirt stepping in for the injured Corluka and couldn’t have asked for a better game to debut. I was very impressed with the youngster especially his hand in the second goal. A burst of pace and displaying sound awareness to pull the back for Modric offers something Charlie is incapable of. I’m not sure if Corluka knows what the byline looks like but the young whippersnapper gives us a different option. Walker also showed desire to get forward at every opportunity but was often missed by Bentley who was inevitably to busy doing stepovers to release the young full back. Defensively he didn’t have a lot to do but handled the threat of Piquionne and Kanu maturely when called upon.

Crouch finally broke his goal duck with a well placed header from a delightful Bale cross. His run without a goal remarkably spans back to January for our much maligned plank. He was again full of effort and endeavour holding the ball up well but also showed good touches throughout the game. A lovely piece of skill at the corner flag had one chuckling in particular. The Crouch-Gud partnership has shown promise in the last couple of games which has cushioned the blow of having JD out.

You would expect to be coming up against a more competitive Portsmouth in our upcoming FA Cup clash at Wembley. On the day they offered very little threat and have the look of a doomed team. Such is their luck their team are currently dropping like flies too. Three players leaving the field injured has further weakened them and it’s tough not to feel pity for them. As Crouch said though there is no time for sentimentality in football and I'm currently looking forward to pasting Portsmouth at Wembley come 11th April.