Fulham are one of those teams that you can never be too sure what the result will be. Some years they are tough and difficult to play. especially at home, and we have been lucky to come away with a draw. Mostly though we go to The Cottage with high hopes of an expected win, only to have those hopes dashed by resilient Fulham and a late goal.
Even without Harry on the sidelines, Spurs got off to our usual high-impact start with Adebayor & Kyle Walker once again carving an opportunity out of nothing down the right hand side. Walkers pace destroyed the Fulham defence, allowing him to get to the by-line and making a smart cutback to Lennon, who's well placed shot was parried by Schwarzer into the path of an on-rushing Bale. The Welsh Monkey God need no second invitation to unleashed a fierce shot that cannoned off of Baird and into the back of the net. Ten minutes played and 1-nil up...
Fulham had their chances during the first half, with Granddad Friedel making some great saves from the likes of Dempsey and the like-wise aging defender, John Arne Riise, (I thought he had retired...?), but Tottenham were strong through the midfield, and ended the half strongly. So strongly indeed, that in injury time Lennon popped up on the left after a neat interchange with Bale, and weaved his way past a defender before shooting across Schwarzer and into the net on the far-side. CRACKER... and into the changing rooms at half time 2-nil up....
The second half followed the now usual script, with Fulham coming out strongly and immediately putting the Spurs back 4 under pressure, which eventually led to a goal. Much like the goal conceded the week before against QPR it came from a corner that was not effectively cleared, and Kings wayward header clipped Kaboul on the back and deflected past a stranded Friedel.
From then on it was all Fulham, and at no point for the remainder of the half was I confident that Spurs would come out on top. There was one almighty classic goal-mouth scramble, where at one point, Walker was on the ground at the feet of the players holding the ball to his chest...? How we got away with that one I don't know. Luka Modric, who had done almost nothing all game, managed to save a nailed-on goal from Dempsey whilst guarding the post at a corner, when he somehow scooped the ball off the line and put it round the post... Amazing....
Even with a minute to go in injury time I was still not convinced we were going to hang on for the win, when Defoe, who had come on for VdV, was presented with the slightest of chances from a deflected Adebayor cutback, that he wasted no time in dispatching into the back of the net for a very unlikely 3-1 score line.....
Although I have complained over the past few weeks about Tottenham' inability to put a game away when we go ahead, we have at least done enough to seal the win eventually on each occasion, whereas in previous season we would have collapsed under the pressure. It appears that this season, Spurs are a different proposition away from home, and I think the addition of Parker in midfield has given us a resilience that he have not seen at Spurs for a good couple of decades. Even though I do not really enjoy the closeness of some of these games, and I would prefer to see my beloved Tottenham win in style every week, I'll take a win every day of the year....
Come On You Spurs....
My player ratings are: -
- Friedel - 8.0 - Another great performance that kept us in the game
- Bale - 7.5 - Starting to cause some real threat and score on a regular basis
- Kaboul - 7.0 - Couldn't do much about the goal, but a generally good game
- King - 7.0 - Probably could have done better with the goal, but I can overlook that...
- Walker - 8.0 - Great build up play for the first goal. A career in Rugby may await...
- BAE - 7.0 - Quiet but solid game, just how a left back should be
- Lennon - 8.0 - Working well with Bale and popping up in new positions. Great goal
- Sandro - 6.5 - Bit-part performance, which strengthened the midfield toward the end
- Parker - 8.0 - Another gritty game from our midfield lynch pin
- Van der Vaart - 7.5 - Lots of industry this week, just not the end product
- Defoe - 7.5 - Did nothing but score... I'll take that...
- Modric - 7.5 - Seems a little out-of-place in the midfield. Great goal saving stop though
- Adebayor - 7.5 - Still no goal but some great touches. Strong in defence as well
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