Jermaine Jenas, Heurelho Gomes and another 1-0 win

THE BAGGIES at home. Ok, they picked up one point for each goal they scored against Sunderland last week but sill i'd thought we'd do them 3-0; as did many other fans that were congrugated outside WHL eager to not miss kick off. I could see Robbie Keane, Luka Modric and Ledley King goals but after all that, it was Tottenham's scapegoat for the season Jermaine Jenas who popped up with a smart finish into Paxton Road on the stroke of half time. Since Redknapp took over, Iv noticed a change in JJ, he battles more and earns his 30 grand each week- well, to an extent. Still though, I pictured a fairly routine home win and not in the slightest could I see us losing our second home game under the Redkanpp era.

I respected West Brom, they played five in midfield and, at times, looked to play football. Their major flaw, though, was trying to play through our midfield. At a time when Palacios is looking better and better each week, not even the mighty Borja valero, Robert Greening or Chris Brunt could play through our Honduran tank. Still though, for 93 minutes, they tried and tried- I would say I felt sorry for them, but I didn't.
A fourth consecutive 1-0 win at home and I'm not complaining, yeah West Brom are bottom of the league, but, to be honest- they're no Derby County. They forced some wonderful saves by the in-form Heurelho Gomes, take a look on MOTD- they were stunning. Spurs are looking more and more confident at knocking the ball around and are beginning to be a joy to watch it week, the depression has passed and now as we get to the business end of the season it's exciting being the favourites for games once again.

The win today was Spurs' 6th consecutive clean sheet at home. Considering at the start of the season we couldn't buy three points; it brings such delight to now mention that we haven't lost at home since November and have won our last five home games, and this is on the basis of many players that have come on since Redknapp took over. The one to have come on the most has got to be the goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes; the Brazilian has gone from the World's worst to one of the Premier League's top 4 or 5 pulling off potential saves of the season and he continued that with another two today. Another player is former Geordie midfielder Jermaine Jenas. I'm fast becoming more of a fan of Jenas, as recent performances have proved, he's been sticking the ball into the back of the net more often and getting his foot stuck in for once- plus he's still got the excuse of being a younger member of the team; so that'l be another player that will leave us and end up at a bigger club, I hear Jose's back in for him?

Still though another 1-0 win against the worst team in the league, statistically, and I'm satisfied. We kept our cool, a clean sheet and we looked confident at the back; even though our 'keeper got us out of trouble on a couple of occasions. Woodgate and King looking strong at the back and as long as we score more than the opposition i couldn't care less how many we concede. And now as the cricket season is upon us *sighs* and the football season draws to a close *sighs more* it should prove to be a decent end to it all.

(Picture copyright of Tottenhamhotspur.com)
Regards, Ben

Are we really surprised?

ONCE AGAIN the scoreline told what many other fans expected to see, a Spurs loss at United; to be fair we haven't won up there for 17 odd years or so. Although, I still believed my beloved Spurs would play fine football without the pressure that hung on us for much of this season, we'd beaten the drop- in my opinion a place in the Europa league and a 7th finishing spot would be pushing it a bit. But still I watched the game with the same rush of optimism that had hit me ever since i returned from Villa Park not to long ago.

After Darren Bent had become the top English scorer in the premiership and then our little croatian had put us two ahead I still felt as though, as I'm sure many of us did, that United would score and 'normal service' would be resumed. Although at half time i felt we'd played like winners against the best team in Europe. We'd passed the ball around calmly, played our own game and looked ever so dangerous when attacking the Stretford end, I'm sure many of the United 'fans' had regretted their long trip up from London and i'm sure many had turned to City, after getting their first away win yesterday. I felt proud to be a Spurs fan, 2-0 up at Old Trafford adding to our unbeaten run against the teams in the top four and having done the double over the hammers, that's bragging rights for us this season!Then reality hit us, it felt worse than being kicked in the bollocks by the powerful boot of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink back in the day..

The premiership's 'top' referee buckles under the pressure of 70,000 moaning fans as their team has looked to bottle it again against a Spurs team that had taken just 2 points from their first 8 games as-once our very own- Micheal Carrick goes down like his legs have been cut off. Now, as a referee myself I can understand that if Webb had felt the ball wasn't played and the linesman agreed with the decision, fair enough, penalty. The fact that Webb had a clear view of the brilliant goalkeeping by our very own Heurelho Gomes- who, despite conceding five goals, had one of his better games- plus the fact that the linesman also shared the view of Spurs fans across the country, shows that Webb has plain and simply bottled it, 'crumbled' under the pressure AGAIN and since that point, with the referee showing his true colours (the red of united) we didn't stand a chance of gaining anything at the 'Theatre of dreams'. We were then rapidly brought down to Earth as united scored their first, the 2nd, the 3rd and so on.. you know how the rest goes. I could also mention the foul on our little croatian left winger during the build up to the second United goal and the fact that Lennon was kicked by Ronaldo who was later booked for removing his shirt, but I could go on forever.

The fact is that once again we were robbed at Old Trafford; but are we really surprised? I seem to remember a certain Pedro Mendes scoring from Half way a few seasons back, but that's seems to all have been forgiven and forgotten, each season we talk about introducing technology but how long do we have to wait until the FA actually help the nation recover some pride and introduce video technology; but then again I can't imagine the FA acting upon this, I mean they thought Steve McClaren was best suited for the England job.. that's got to say something!

I read some suggestions such as bans for poor refereeing and this and that but this is always going to happen to the 'smaller' clubs in England, on the 58th minute the title was kept in Manchester and with referees giving the benefit of the doubt to the 'bigger' clubs in the country can we really be surprised that it is the same teams challenging the same top four places every season?

N.B Regards to all the 3000 die hard Spurs fans that travelled up to the theatre of dreams to see a nightmare of refereeing.

Regards, Ben