Official NEC Nijmegen v Tottenham Match thread ***

[Spurs-Turner-Spurs]

Was reli happy to see gomes talking to the defence and coming and catching the ball

[anderton46]

Gomes was perhaps the only real good point for me other than I thought Bale's defensively looked great and had that player in the pocket all game.

Otherwise I felt we looked like we lacked any creativity. Which isnt surprising with the midfield but still.

[LLOYDY]

poor poor performance cant really take any positives from this game...at least were through to the knock out phases

[zePav]

Bent and Campbell were utter pony
Bently was out of position and extreemly inefective = pony
The Hud gave the ball away far to many times against a team we should have been smashing off the park.
Zakora was supposed to be the attacking midfielder and was completely anonamous for the entire game.
3 points was what mattered though, so cant grumble too much.

in first half i was totally confused by harrys midfield formation. the commentators mentioned a diamond midfield - but who played where? seemed like all the width was coming from our fullbacks

[PrimetimeSpur13]

poor poor performance cant really take any positives from this game...at least were through to the knock out phases

How bout playing without a number of our key players and winning away from home? Thats enough for me. Are we officially through to the knockout stages?

[littleharry]

Not officially yet, but there has only been one occasion when 6 points in the group stage was not enough to progress. We are not playing in the next round of games. So by the time we play spartak moscow we will know if we need to get anything from the game.

O'Hara was my man of the match

[slimboydim]

Good Morning, I have to laugh to see us complaining about a bad
performance when we won. A few weeks ago under the Spanish
Mr. Bean I would have given anything for just a win.
Guess we have short memories about how bad things were, in the
Prem we were 2 points from 8 games.
Last night we won with a weakened team, and now need to move
forward to the Everton game. With how tight the table looks we need
a win. An ugly win will do me fine at the moment...

[nickGT]

poor poor performance cant really take any positives from this game...at least were through to the knock out phases

No one got injured. And we won.

It wasn't the best display ever but who cares? I really think some players were saving there legs for everton.

[littleharry]

Good Morning, I have to laugh to see us complaining about a bad
performance when we won. A few weeks ago under the Spanish
Mr. Bean I would have given anything for just a win.
Guess we have short memories about how bad things were, in the
Prem we were 2 points from 8 games.
Last night we won with a weakened team, and now need to move
forward to the Everton game. With how tight the table looks we need
a win. An ugly win will do me fine at the moment...

Only to true, I was thinking about making a deal with the devil and selling my soul in the hope that Tottenham would win a game. Arry's not even been in charge for 40 days yet and I wouldnt have expected our run of results in my wildest dreams.
Two games won 1-0, I dont think we have had that sequence for about two years, I think it shows that finally the team is showing that they can dig in and grind out results. We never used to be able to hold onto a lead.

[Geeman1973]

Now that's not a post I thought i'd be posting anytime soon. But after watching the distinctive average display against a sold if un-remarkable opposition last night I was really impressed with Gomes.

He didn't have a 'busy' game but he made one excellent stop, was sold at corners and crosses, collected every ball and did not punch once. Long may it continue - I hope he does keep turning it around. I had written him off, but when you look at him you can't help but smile - he's one of the good guys and obviously a top bloke.

I hope that he keeps it up - he does deserve some good form.

Talking of form - how average was Bentley, Hudd, Zokora. But then we got the win and it could easily have been 1-1 if Gomes had been poor.

[The Art of Football]

i really hope that gomes stay with us for along time and shows us his true talent, and imposes his character in the team and in the stands

[St.Helens Spurs]

Wasnt great but a win is a win, should go through easily now.
Bently looking dodgey again as was Dawson but doesnt really matter NEC never looked likely to score, Woodgate man of the match for me.

Bentley really does need to get his act together. He has looked marginally better since Redknapp took over and we have seen flashes of brilliance - the goal against the scum and a couple of good crosses, but thats about it.

I thought Dawson did pretty well in general but struggled on two occassions under the high ball because he got his bearings wrong. I think this has been mentioned before and I'm not looking for excuses but doesn't he have quite poor vision? I think he wears contacts. May go some way to explaininig why he struggles getting his head on a high looping ball. Remember the game at Old Trafford in the FA cup last year where he made a right mess of a high ball and eneded up hand balling it and giving away a pen?

Glad to see Gomes looking solid. Finally managed to get the basics right that you expect of a top keeper. Well done to him and lets hope it is a sign of things to come.

[funster]

.....Remember the game at Old Trafford in the FA cup last year where he made a right mess of a high ball and eneded up hand balling it and giving away a pen?.....

Oh yes, only too well! When you mentioned Dawson getting done by the ball over the top that was the first game that came to mind!

I was relegated to watching it on the telly last night. And that too seriously distracted by the fact that our freezer was beeping away which I later worked out meant it is no longer working!

All that aside, Huddlestone was back to what we've seen so often. Great long range passes, rubbish at anything less.

Bent was very, very ineffective. Could've scored. Good save by their keeper, but I wonder how much of this is to do with formation and Modric's absence? Bent was cack against Rovers and pretty cack last night. Common factor - other than Bent! - no Modric and a 4-4-2. Coincidence?

I won't say 'no matter' because it does matter. If you want to challenge the very best you must improve, even if the improvements are to small niggles.

A decent set of results in the next round and/or a good result against Spartak and knock-out stages here we come. Again!

[Geeman1973]

I agree - I was disappointed. I know a lot of guys are saying think of how we were 4 weeks ago - but my point is that we improved massively but last night was very much a Ramos type performance.

I'm sure Harry knows it was average and he'll be concentrating on Sunday. I actually think Harry wasn't bothered if we won or lost last night, he's made it clear his priority is the league.
If he was keen to get things moving then he would have brough on Lennon and made stronger changes at half time. But most of the 2nd half was marginally worse..

Oh well - as previously stated - if we can get a win playing like that - hopefully we can get good results from average opponoents when we're on a bad day.

I think they'll be a big change on Sunday and hopefully Modric will be back, and Jenas too - who does seem to be able to help play move forward more. I also think the Corluka and Pav were bth missed.