You Wont Like Him When He's Twitchy

Prior to our quarter final replay with Fulham, a recent interview with Luka Modric revealed that Redknapp can be quite scary when going into the dressing room at half time losing. Ironically we got to see what effects Harry’s anger has on our men.

A game against Fulham is never easy and in a tepid and lacklustre first half we saw our heroes going a goal down to a brilliantly taken goal by our old friend Bobby Zamora. Yes that man who passed the ball into the back of the net so blasé was our old headless chicken that we flogged to West Ham.

As a team we looked slow, stoic and although we were creating half chances Fulham contained us effectively. Redknapp, so good and talking the talk now had to walk the walk. He bit the bullet and bravely made some rather radical changes. Making a double sub after forty-five minutes is a risk regardless that the team looked more balanced on paper than the initial line up. The ineffective Kranjcar replaced with Hudd and the headless Benny swapped for Bentley.

Redknapp's gallantry was immediately rewarded. Bale, given the license to charge from deep by switching to left back, quickly won a free kick off former defender Stephen Kelly. Bentley stepped up for his first kick of the game. The first half was littered with poor set piece delivery’s failing to beat the first man. Old David decided to fudge all that and proceeded to ping a delightful ball which nestled perfectly in the far post without anyone getting a touch to it. Completely intentional free kick goals are Bentley’s specialty against Fulham where he scored a perfectly deflected one against our opponents earlier in the season.

Drawn level Spurs proceeded to ravage our opponents and dominate them in every department. With energy levels this high after half time I wonder if DavSpurs is worrying about our players 'taking on board energy' during the break. Driving with purpose we looked more balanced, settled and infinitely more dangerous. Even with Charlie going off with a knock Harry simply replaced our right back with a striker and Sgt. Wilson slipped effortlessly into the vacant position.

Modric looked far more dangerous cutting into space from the left. We retained the ball much better with Hudd conducting the play, this game proving how important he is to our play. Gudjohnson showed eagerness and versatility when switched to the middle and Bentley looked a man possessed. Whatever Harry said at half time certainly got our midfield going.

DB05 has never been a particular favourite of mine and often get irritated by his attempts to be a proper flash git, however when the little flicks and dummys he so often attempt actually work it's difficult not to smile for the lad. Konchesky got done a kipper by Bentley numerous times throughout the half and David managed to squeeze a high far post cross aimed for Pav. What followed was something I wouldn't have predicted.

I would be remiss of me to excluded that I mentioned on a previous post that Pav doesn't have a left foot. Well Pav bitch slapped me with a Van Basten-esque volley with his left beating Schwarzer at his near post. Sure the connection wasn't as sweet as the Dutchman’s but Super Pav showed exquisite technique to put us in front. His expression showed even he was surprised by his effort with exuberant celebration.

All we needed was a killer third. After some prodding and poking at the carcass that Fulham had been reduced to we got it. Modric cutting in from the left slipped in a great through ball for our Iceman Gudjohnson to run onto. The ball took a deflection but Eidur diligently carried on his chase and nipped in to beat not only Schwarzer to the first ball but also got the second touch to beat the back tracking defender. His perseverance throughout the game is testament to the effort put in to get himself to match fitness. He ended up making the ninety minutes look a piece of cake.

Fulham woke up for the last twenty minutes and put us under some pressure but in truth they never looked like getting back into it. Our defence stood firm impressively to prevent any jitters and we had the tie won.

Harry has had and probably still has some doubters. The usual grumbles surround him not being proactive enough with his substitutions and inexplicably being called tactically inept. He’s answered them emphatically by showing he‘s got the stones to change something that’s not working and getting a response out of his team. During Harry’s short time with the club he has made nothing but progress and Wembley beckons for Tottenham. We may have taken the scenic route with three replays but we have an extraordinarily tasty tie against Pompey to come. I can't stop singing Ossie's Dream and my knee's certainly will be trembly.