It's Grim Up North

Saturday afternoon at the Stadium of Light was not a pleasant place to be. Spurs often leave any remnants of confidence behind when travelling up north and this weekends game proved to be no different. Sporting a rather fetching photo negative of our home strip our boys prepared for battle in a wet and windy affair which was bound to test their resolve…and it took Sunderland and Barren Dent all of thirty-six seconds to see us crumble.

From the kick off our defence showed all the cohesion of velcro in conceding a typical Bent finish. With a back four of Walker, Kab, Bass, BAE, playing together for the first time and displaying a worrying lack of leadership without Daws, it was the worst possible start we could make. A combination of Sunderland flying from the off and jittery defending saw a corner conceded within ten seconds. Kyle Walker, making his second Premier League start, lost his man in the resulting set piece leaving Campbell with a free header in the box. Gomes done well to parry the shot away but you would expect better from him than to push it directly onto Bent’s toe.

Little Darren ran jubilantly across the Spurs fans celebrating with about as much class as can be expected from him. Giving the faithful a mouthy sign and feeling fully vindicated at getting his own back for anyone, anywhere, to ever have criticised him. It speaks volumes of his neediness and mental strength that he has so much ill feeling to a club he made a fortune out of whilst giving very little return in form and performances. One (admittedly ill advised) tongue in cheek comment from his manager should not affect a top level professional player in this way. I have no ill feeling towards Bent as a player and believe he offered as much as his limited ability could but as a person he lacks both the intellect and decency to be remembered for anything other than his inadequacies.

From then on in Sunderland bossed us, embarrassingly so. Although excuses can be made for all of our injury woes we were simply outplayed in all area’s of the field and it didn’t take long for Sunderland to be further rewarded. A Gomes save, again parried into a dangerous area bounced off the arm of Walker and the penalty was duly given. No arguments about the decision, the ball quite clearly hit his outstretched upper limb whether intentional or not. Up stepped Bent to score his second of the game, repeat celebration, needs to get over himself.

A strange pattern soon started to emerge as the game progressed. Sunderland were seemingly intent on attempting to win as many penalties as they could. Following an early farcical dive by Henderson in the opening exchanges another former Spur, Frazier Campbell, was practically horizontal before contact was made with Modric’s leg. In a scenario similar to Bent’s dive at WHL the official once again gave a penalty. Bent stepped up again, first half hat-trick tangible, picturing the headlines and Harry’s face, only for Gomes to ruin the moment and swipe his effort wide of the post.

First half finished with no-one leaving the field having done themselves justice. We had moments of laboured possession but showed little intent throughout. Without Dawson our defence is powderpuff, Kab and Bassong lack authority, BAE must have still been deciding what music he wants to listen to, Modric is not a central midfielder away from home, Bentley frustrated, Pav and Eidur looked tired and the whole thing was a sad, sorry mess. Redknapp tried a repeat of Fulham by making two half time changes. Off went Bentley for Krancjar and Ekotto for Defoe with Bale and Modric moving to their traditional positions and Eidur slotting in the middle.

Second half though, proved no better. Sunderland beat us to everything, passed more fluidly, won the midfield battle with Cattermole and Meyler, and in Malbranque and Henderson had the beating of us in the wide areas. Our attack provided no real danger and Gordon was untroubled for very little of the game. However our major concern lay in our defence.

Again we got caught out down the right and Meyler, needing very little encouragement, fell over in the area, penalty number three given. Bent stepping up again, Gomes saving again and the picture of confusion etched on his face proved a wonderfully cathartic moment. Our opposition were awarded more penalties in ninety minutes than we have been awarded in the league all season. A conspiracy…or maybe do we need to be a little more ‘continental’ when in the box? Doesn’t really make a difference, we can’t score the ruddy things anyway.

Crouch came on, scored a goal which should have been disallowed for an illegal jump, and a feeling of hope flickered. Playing badly and getting points is the stuff of champions. We had indeed played very badly and ridden our luck but a point could be up for grabs. A little injection of promise came and eventually fizzled out but some further highlights did occur before the final whistle.

Kenwyne Jones came off the bench to supply possibly the finest airshot seen for some times, the crap Ferdinand brother’s gay jig for his disallowed goal was a moment to smile about and Zenden’s sumptuous volley provided the only moments of genuine interest left in the game.

That sinking feeling seems to be reverberating around N17 with this performance and woefully threadbare squad going into the April gauntlet. Many have rubbished any ideas of CL football but Sunderland showed us that you can play awful away from home one week before mustering up a brilliant performance at home the next.

We still control our league position with a game against City still to play however we must drastically improve whilst also bring bodies back into the squad. This team had won five games on the bounce prior to this. The challenge is very much alive, don’t lose faith, it‘s still within our grasp, believe...and all that jazz.