League Cup Semi-Final, First Leg: Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 Burnley

[funster]

Well punters, here I am again, kind of announcing my return by way of writing this match report. The regulars will know I've been away for a while. The world of work got the better of me in the lead up to Christmas, and some unexpected issues made for difficult times around New Year. Of course, I've missed a few matches in that time, but what better way to get back into the swing of things than a third semi-final in three years?

So with the promise of -2c temperatures I set off from home late afternoon, and had the usual pre-match warm-up. Couple of beers on the train, couple more at The Coach & Horses, washed down with a double whisky. Purely medicinal. Keep the cold out!

Earlier in the day it had been confirmed that Jermain Defoe was on his way back to The Lane. Not exactly a surprise. All the talk of interest from Man City, Juventus and whoever else, was, I think little more than a smokescreen. My mate Andy - a big Pompey fan - was unhappy, but had been resigned to the loss. Our gain - of that I am very sure. We are seriously lacking in the striking department and I'm pretty sure Defoe will return to score goals. The hope is that this time 'round he manages more than a season-and-a-half of decent performances before going off the boil and having to play second fiddle to a first choice strike pairing!

Defoe was duly paraded before the far from full house pre-match. Burnely had put in a decent turnout. Not exactly surprising. After wins in previous rounds against Fulham, Chelsea and Arsehole, and with a Wembley appearance two games away, for a side from outside the top flight, this is a big, big event. Not to say it isn't for us. Trust me, it is. This competition once again provides us with the best opportunity of silverware and European football, but for a club from outside the top flight..... these opportunities are all too rare.

It was disappointing seeing the number of empty seats. Not of the scale as witnessed against Spartak Moscow, but empties regardless.

There was little surprise in the line-up. King rested, most of the other personnel as you'd expect given other absences through injury.

This was it then. One game of football to give ourselves the result we needed to go to Turf Moor in a couple of weeks to seal a place at Wembley. The fact that we were away second leg, and considering Burnley's recent great form in this competition, I had the feeling we needed a two goal cushion.

Easier said than done, especially when you present the opposition with chance after chance early in the game.

Burnley made all the running. Throughout the first half.

This was daft. We were embarrassing ourselves in a game we needed to win, and win comfortably to minimise the chance of mishaps in the return, and it looked like we were going to totally fail to do it.

Chances came from the right, and then left as we allowed the Burnley wingers to run unchallenged down both wings and cross at will. It was particularly poor down the right, as Burnley also managed to sneak the ball into the right side of the box. Lucky for us that Woody was there to pick up the pieces from the shoddy defending by Bale. By the look of it, Gomes was also well positioned, even though he wasn't required.

Woody then had to come up with an exceptional piece of defending on the left, turning with the ball, out of trouble when facing our own goal, following a ball that had been well played over his head by Burnley.

We were nowhere in this game. We couldn't even get fouls given in our favour! A couple of poor decisions by the ref when we were in well advanced positions, but really, there was nobody to blame other than ourselves for the very poor show we were putting on.

After a Burnley shot from the right that went comfortably wide, they broke down that side again, and shambolic defending by Bale and Bentley between them allowed for an easy ball across goal, and what was left was nothing more than a tap-in. Utter garbage. Fifteen minutes into the game, Burnley dominant and we concede a piss poor goal. Without taking anything away from Burnley - they worked it well - the ball should never..... never, ever, ever have been allowed to be slide across the box.

The Burnley fans were happy. Understatement. Fifteen minutes in and they were sensing another top flight London scalp. Tops off, cold as it was, they were enjoying it.

It seemed immediately after we conceded that it may have jolted us into action. We created a chance following a good move down the left - Bale and Bentley possibly trying to make up for the shambles that had gone before - but the shot was easily saved, and soon after we got back into our earlier groove. Playing second fiddle to the visitors.

After his earlier excellent pieces of defending Woody now conspired to undo that good work. Beaten for pace on a ball played over the top down the right - yet again! - he was lucky to see that the cross was poor.

The Bale-Bentley combination wasn't working. Of all the parts of the team that weren't working, this was the one malfunctioning the most. Another couple of shabby bits of defending allowed Burnley to have a man on the wing, totally unmarked, place his cross - and thankfully for us - only for the header to be directed wide.

Our second chance of the half came from a corner. It was at the far end so it was difficult to make out, but the ball stayed out of the net. Looked close. Scant consolation. Two, maybe three Spurs chances, to all those that Burnley had looked to create.

There was then a period of about ten minutes when not much happened. Probably just as well for us really! Of course, it couldn't last, and Bale put his foot in it again leading up to half time, playing one of the most shocking balls forward I've had the dubious pleasure of seeing. Aimless, to nobody at all.

It allowd Burnley to attack and fortune favoured us once again as it led to nothing.

Given the appalling efforts down our left side throughout the half it should have come as no surprise that the final movement of the half was once again on that side. Another rubbish bit of play from Bale, another ball into the box from Burnley, another bit of fortune for us.

Half time and we retired for more liquid refreshment. Without doubt it had been one of the worst halves of football I've had to watch recently. My God, there have been a lot!

It had been horrible to watch. No effort, no passion, no guts. No excuses. It was poor. It wasn't as though we'd been overrun in the centre of midfield - which I'd feared with no Jenas and no Huddlestone. No. It was that we had rolled over and let Burnley dominate possession, and allowed them easy routes down the wings, particularly the right. The Bale-Bentley combination was awful.

No surprises, then, that Harry made a change right at the beginning of the second half. Bentley withdrawn, Jamie O'Hara thrown on. Same formation, instant transformation.

Almost immediately we were on level terms. Decent delivery from the corner by O'Hara and Dawson rose best, directing his header - and a superb one at that - high into the net. Come on!

It immediately got the crowd going, and with the early goal, back on side. Now we had a platform to build on. A platform from which to go on and win the game. A platform to allow us to seek the advantage that I had no doubt we needed before the return at Turf Moor.

Another chance was created soon after. Pavlyuchenko won a high ball down the right, Lennon cut it in, and inexplicably the referee gave a spot kick rather than a corner.

No matter. Pav was getting into the game now, and we didn't have to wait long to take the advantage. Five or so minutes after the equaliser, and with the crowd beginning to buzz, the ball was played into to Pav on the edge of the box on the right. His shot was off target and deflected high, looping wide to O'Hara on the left, who smacked it first time..... GOAL!

Somehow it squeezed under Jensen in the Burnley goal. Probably shouldn't have, but it did, and the game had been turned around. All of a sudden the Burnely fans - who had been taunting us with chants of "Are you Arsenal in disguise?" and (imaginatively) "Are you Chelsea in disguise?" - had gone quiet. They couldn't have expected this. Neither, really, had we, but O'Hara had created one, scored the other, and there was plenty more to come. He even managed to put in a free kick that was miles better than anything Bentley had mustered.

We weren't clear of the mistakes though. A shoddy ball under no pressure from Modric thankfully only led to a couple of Burnley throws, but the transformation was far from complete. The momentum had shifted though and was now very much in our favour.

Pav had already started to get back into the game, and now Campbell wanted to get into the action too. We worked the ball to him down the left on the break, and he opted to shoot when he really should have crossed. Easy save for Jensen.

Burnley's best chance of the second half ended up with the ball in Gomes's arms, safe, from a bit of a scramble. We should really have dealt with it better, earlier, but the goal wasn't breached, and we were soon up at the other end.

We worked it to Pav on the edge of the box, and he shifted past the defender as though he wasn't even there, then smashed it low, hard, and swiftly into the bottom corner. Woo-hoo! The two goal advantage, and a lovely, lovely bit of finishing.

I had still doubted whether we could secure that two goal cushion, yet here it was! Absolutely fantastic, and there was more to come!

Within a matter of minutes we'd won a free kick on the right, and Jamie floated it beautifully into the danger zone, off a Burnley head, and into the back of the net. All of a sudden we had a three goal advantage! Where had this come from? Well, Jamie O'Hara in no small part for starters!

It was almost beyond belief considering the horrible efforts of the first half. Total transformation. Burnley, and their supporters, had had the stuff well and truly knocked out of them.

With fifteen minutes to go they needed to go for something and threw on a striker in place of a winger. It didn't really deliver much. Even with our best efforts to gift them another chance - a really poor ball from Zokora that he got away with - there was going to be no getting back into the game.

A break from Pav drew a foul and a yellow card when advantage would have been the better option, but there were still signs that a fifth may be on the cards. Cue Spurs chants of "Are you Arsenal in disguise?" directed at the travelling supporters.

We created two more chances of note. First, their keeper coming and getting nowhere near the ball from a free kick. Campbell played the ball to Zokora and..... well, the outcome was inevitable. High. Very, very high!

Campbell was the centre of the final chance of the game too. The ball broke to him on the left. A lovely turn but the cross couldn't match the quality. Too weak. Didn't clear the defender.

The fifth, it turned out, wasn't going to come, but the transformation was complete. A three goal advantage to take into the second leg, and the thought of one foot at Wembley.

It was quite a turnaround. We had been abject in the first half. The awful performance incited what's been widely reported as a pretty furious reaction from Redknapp, and rightly so. Most abject of the first half was the Bale-Bentley duo on the left.

I actually though Bale was to blame for most of it. He had looked terrible. Incredible then, that with Bentley taken off and O'Hara thrown on at the start of the second half, there were no grounds for me to complain about Bale's performance.

Draw your own conclusions if you want, but I'll nail my colours to the mast. I am losing my patience with David Bentley in a way no other Spurs player has ever managed. Yeah, sure, he's a right winger, and he's being played left wing. If you're going to accommodate both, I actually think you get better balance with Lennon down the left, but Harry doesn't think so. To cap that off, Bentley's best performance so far this season was at Upton Park where he played left wing. I don't get it.

Yet again I find myself scratching my head. We never bought him for his pace. Fine. We have Lennon for that. We bought him for - presumably - delivery. O'Hara put that to shame with the corner and the free kick that both led to goals.

I had no doubt in my mind at half time. Like Stewart Downing or not, he would offer us a far better balance than David Bentley as a starter on the left. O'Hara's performance went some way to reassuring me that if we don't get Downing - and 'Boro, despite looking like a team under siege, seem unwilling to play ball - we have a player in O'Hara who will give it his all, and clearly does have the ability to deliver the goods.

I can't believe I am on such a downer about Bentley, but what do you do when he consistently fails to deliver? I think it would still be unfair to single him out for criticism of the poor performance down the left. Bale was also culpable and his recent performances are far from anything to write home about. He has a long way to go to recapture the form following his transfer from Saints.

It was easy to see, also, that we were poor in the centre of midfield. Like Jenas or not, my humblest of humble opinions about him, giving current playing staff, is that we're better served with him playing than not.

So, onward to the second leg at Turf Moor. A three goal cushion should - and I stress SHOULD - be plenty. There's no place for complacency though. Anything less than full effort and..... well, just imagine if we concede in the first ten. We've got to be right on top of our game if we're going to secure that second Wembley appearance in two years. OK, the cushion takes some of the pressure off, but become complacent and we'll be our own worst enemies.

I'll be there, of course, as, quite possibly will Jermain Defoe (not cup-tied - hurrah!), and who knows who else? Let's hope we've got the goals in us if we need them, and better yet, that we don't concede and seal that Wembley appearance again.

[andyid1964]

well done dude

[thfcshady27]

good work mate and i totally agree on the bentley situation...i dont enjoy being so hard on the guy but im disgusted with him to be honest! hes just not putting in the effort!