COLUMNIST KEN BUCKLEY

From My Seat: Spurs (H)

By Ken Buckley :  31/01/2008 :  Comments (6) :

One point only from a game that perhaps should have been won by the Blues in the first half.

Six players short against a rejuvinated Spurs under the tutilege of Ramos saw us have most of the game which underlines our right to be fourth.

In a first half dominated by the Blues saw us produce some excellent moves which should have led to goals but for that lack of compsure in the vital area. AJ,Baines and Big Vic had chances but just didnt have either the class or was it the luck to convert.

Ten minutes from the break and what looked like a trip on AJ by Huddleston went unpunished by both ref and linesman much to the disgust of those assembled.

This got the crowd going and although wave after wave of attacks were produced no end product was forthcoming.

In that first half all that Spurs could muster was an overhead kick from Malbranque to trouble us.

The second half started well with a mesmeric run from Arteta but his final shot was wide of the far post.

Some ten minutes later a superb pass from Manny split the Spurs defence and found AJ in space but his shot was trapped somewhere between the keepers body and the turf when really the net should have bulged.

From then on a nil-nil looked nailed on and so it proved although in the last fifteen minutes Spurs came into the game much more and produced some threatening situations but in truth they owed a lot to a tiring Blues outfit and sloppiness from both Neville and Fernandes.

Final whistle and the big screen showed us that results elsewhere had been kind to us.

Overall I thought that under the circumstances we had done quite well but again it showed that the excellent progress that has been made depends so much on having our first picks fit and available to turn games such as this from draws to wins.

In an entertaining game when the class acts on both sides were defenders leaves me believing that despite the raw talent of Big Vic and Vaughany that missing magic ingredient talked about must be the box preditor.

My man of the match was Lescott closely followed by Jags and Nuno which at home is really the wrong end of the pitch for such accolades.

Still we remain fourth and as Mr Moyes says if we can keep hanging about until ACN players are back and all injury problems subside then a decent league position can be attained and who knows going to City twice might just come true.

I still worry though that we are light in midfield and lack that all important wideman that could give this season such a boost.

But the window is about to close so I reckon it's we go with what we have got and may they deliver.
Ewood next and no easy trip,lets just hope we can dig another one out.

UP THE BLUES

Reader Comments

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer