Match Report: WBA 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur

THFC1882 present a writing debut from Twitters @Brettsayid reporting on yesterday’s match:

West Bromwich Albion 1 (Mulumbu 10 ) Tottenham Hotspur 3 ( Adebayor 26 , 90, Defoe 81 )

Line ups : WBA – Foster , Reid , Olsson, Mcauley , Shorey , Brunt , Mulumbu , Morrison , Thomas , Gera ( sub , Cox ) Long ( sub , odemwinge )

Spurs – Friedel , Walker , Kaboul , King, BAE , Lennon , Sandro (sub, Livermore), Parker , Bale , Adebayor , Defoe .

With our two creative players unavailable for our game today at the Hawthorns ( Modric – virus , van der Vaart – hamstring ) Spurs came away with three very hard earned points and deserved them for putting in a 90 minute shift .
The first half was not very comfortable although Spurs did play there attacking build up style open game that we are accustomed to witnessing this season so far .
The first ten mins of the game saw West Brom take the game to us and Brad Friedel was soon to be picking the ball out of his net , when Mulumbu drifted in-between two defenders to head home the opening goal of the game , Steven Reid delivered the perfect cross for any team mate to nod home , even Darren Bent would have finished this one.
Spurs were struggling a little in midfield, Sandro looked very late and sluggish with his reading of the game and he paid the price, picking up a yellow card on 21 minutes for a clumsy challenge. Aaron Lennon was very static up till this point of the match and it took Kyle Walker to smash the ball against the advertising boards to send the message across, it worked too. Lennon then after some very well worked build up play on the right cut inside the penalty area and forced his way infront of left back Shorey to earn Spurs a penalty.
Adebayor stepped forward to take the pen for spurs and had a slice of luck when keeper Ben Foster dived to his right to parry the effort but he was able to get to the rebound first and poke home to level the scores .
Spurs were still working on winning the midfield battle and Sandro was again in the thick of controversy, he tackled a player from behind which led to a free kick to the Baggies, and also saw the second booking of the game, luckily for us it wasn’t for Sandro but that of goal scorer Mulumbu who waved an imaginary card to try and have our man removed from the field of play. Such a cowardly act was shared by the WBA boo boys and ref Kevin Friend was being accused of being a cheat and ” don’t know what your doing ” chants . Jermain Defoe tried hard to get involved in the game and had an effort blocked before half time, as van der Vaart’s replacement he really needed to do better, which was to come .

Half time – WBA 1 Spurs 1

The second half started with no changes although Bale and Lennon did exchange wings, this proved to be a very influential move. Kyle walker and Bale worked up a great understanding and it brought both wingers into the game more, it also saw our midfielders Sandro and Parker overpower the opposition and drive us on to win the game.
Spurs had at least 8 chances to score in the second period , even Sandro having an effort on goal. Jermain Defoe, Adebayor, Parker all taking aim but notably Adebayor missing the easier of the chances, although Ben Foster was there when called upon when the opposition needed him. There was one excellent build up in play started with Bale driving inside the right wing laying it into Adebayor who exchanged a one two with Defoe but the finish was lame and straight to the keepers palms. Chris Brunt picked up a yellow for chopping down Bale who went on a marauding run through the middle of the park and both strikers were on runs and awaiting a goalscoring opportunity.

Jake Livermore came on for Sandro who really had run his cause, and had done very well in the second half. Jake was very comfortable to sit and break up play which lead to Scotty Parker driving us on and looking every bit the boss as he has since putting on the Spurs shirt.
It took until the 81st minute for Spurs to secure the game with a great finish by Defoe from the edge of the box, which beat Foster to the bottom of his right corner.
West Brom bought on Odemwingie for Shane Long who gave Younus and Ledders a good game but not enough to put them out of there stride.

Spurs then allowed the home side to come onto them and played a good counter attacking game . Defoe and Bale both could and should have finished the game off, however in injury time Bale broke down the right and unselfishly lay the ball inside to Adebayor to net the winner and lead Spurs into a tenth unbeaten game streak, nine being wins . How good it is to be a Spurs fan right now .

Man of the match – Scott Parker

COYS!

Brett