The line between winning and losing is sometimes a very fine one, and Sundays game was a great example of just how fine that line can be sometimes. Whilst in retrospect Spurs had the upper hand in the stats over the course of their encounter with bottom-of-the-table Blackburn Rovers, any self-respecting Spurs fan would have been biting their nails down to the quick throughout most of the second half. I cannot even pride our back four on some stout defending as Spurs seemed to lose all semblance of shape throughout the game, and it was not for Blackburn's poor quality in front of goal, it could have been a different story....Looking at the team sheet I thought this was the best line up we have fielded for a while, and the game started brightly enough with both teams looking up for a competitive game. Hoilett made a few early penetrating runs through the left side of the Spurs defence, but he ultimately squandered with poor passing. At the other end both Bale & Adebayor came very close within the first 10 minutes, which took some good work from the Blackburn defensive backline to stop an early goal.
Fifteen minutes in and Adebayor released Walker on the right-hand touchline who started off on one of his now familiar athletic runs to the bye-line, where he skilfully picked out the waving Van der Vaart, who majestically slotted the ball passed the flying Robinson, into the bottom corner. Praise was due almost in it's entirety to Walker's run, and VdV acknowledged this in his celebrations.
One-nil up and Spurs started to play expansive football, with Bale terrorising Lowe on the left flank, putting in crosses that were causing Rovers all sorts of problems. Adebayor had a nailed on chance gifted to him from a Bale cross, but he seemed to scuff his shot, allow the ex-Spurs goalkeeper time to deflect it wide. At this point I thought that this game could go one of two ways; either we ran away with it and racked up a cricket score, (as Man City had done earlier in the day); or we would take our foot-off-the-gas and make hard work of retaining our lead.
As is now becoming routine on the road, we made it difficult for ourselves, giving away a needless foul 25 yards out, that allowed Pedersen to send the ball straight on to Samba's massive head, and nod it down to the waiting Formica to slide in from inside the area.... Bugger..! Whilst we had a few chances to regain the lead after the half-hour mark, but Blackburn kept coming back at us, keeping the pressure on, and if it had not been for some good work from Friedel, we could have gone it at half time behind.
I like Harry, I think overall he has been very good for Spurs in the 3 years he has been in charge, but I am sceptical that he is able to put the 'fear-of-God' into the players during the halftime break like some other Managers we know. I always picture him sitting around in the changing room having a cup of tea and a biscuit, saying, "Don't worry lads, we'll come out on top, won't we...?", oh to be a fly on the wall.
At Two-One I again foolishly thought that his may be a turning point in the game, but after the goal it was almost all Blackburn coming at us with wave-after-wave of high balls, poor passes and wasted chances. No-one in the Spurs defence seemed to be able to put their foot on the ball and make a cultured pass out of defence, it was all scrappy long ball stuff, hoofed away to anywhere on the park. All this did was invite the pressure back on Spurs, and we never really looked like we would be able to kill the game off with a third goal, but the spectre of a Rovers equaliser was ever-present.
For the final 30 minutes I watched in agonised despair as we desperately clung on to that slender one goal lead, and resisted all Blackburn attempts to breach our goal, even if Friedel did spill the ball, Bennie came close to giving away a penalty, and Samba accidentally back-heading the ball almost beyond our flailing keeper.... Towards the end we brought on Rose & Defoe to no avail, and Rovers brought on the ever-muscular Yakubu who bullied his way around our 6 yard box, and even he missed a chance to steal it at the death, poking the ball wide.
Four minutes of injury time went on for an eternity, but in the end the Ref blew his whistle and we survived to take home the 3 points. Pundits often say that a championship winning team needs to 'win-dirty' in a campaign in order to go the distance, but this 'ugly' win against a team at the foot of the table was far from convincing.
My Player Ratings: -
- Friedel - 7.5 - Not his best game, but he did keep us in it with some fine saves
- Bale - 7.0 - Had a good 30 minutes in the first half , but faded from the game after that
- Kaboul - 7.0 - Another that didn't play to his normal level, did just enough
- Bassong - 6.5 - Average performance, cant say much more than that
- Walker - 8.0 - Much better going forward, but just about covered his defensive duties
- Assou-Ekotto - 6.5 - Poor showing from our usually dependable left-back
- Lennon - 6.0 - Look good in patches, still hunting for the form of old
- Rose - 6.0 - Added very little when he came on
- Parker - 6.5 - At fault for the Rovers goal, average performance at best
- Van der Vaart - 8.5 - As long as he keeps scoring, he should be in the starting line-up
- Defoe - 6.0 - Wasted substitution, should have brought on Sandro
- Modric - 6.5 - Had few opportunities to shine, less than usual quality from the wizard
- Adebayor - 6.5 - Should have done better with the handful of chances he had
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