They Parked The Bus

Still a bit too sore to see this as a compliment. An opportunity missed, but 10 out of 10 for effort. A ruthlessly resolute and organised manure side eventually won out in the war of attrition, our lads just missing out on that bit of luck or a kind bobble around their goal. The one time it did drop for us, VdV conspired to curl just wide. Some ratings:

Gomes, 7- Excellent save from Rodney at the beginning of the 2^nd half. Not too sure about the one in the 1^st half where he knocked it back in front of himself, but he saw it late so fair do’s.

Hutton, 6- Gets tight when he needs to stand off and vice-versa. He makes me nervous. However, provided an excellent attacking threat against a team permanently pinned in their own half.

Daws, 7- Done everything asked of him. Great awareness. 4 clean sheets in a row at home, coinciding with his return to the side.

Gallas, 7- Just a great defender. Distribution was also excellent.

BAE, 6- Rafael got at him a couple of times, but Nani being quiet and eventually taken off was credit to him.

Lennon, 6.5- With Bale under wraps, he had more ball than he might have anticipated. Huffed and puffed but didn’t get at Evra enough when he was on a booking. Overly critical perhaps. Needs to look inside a little more as there was space to exploit.

Mods, 8- ‘They’ve got Van der Vaart and Bale’. Something you might hear from a few fans taking a passing interest in Totters. We grin smugly as they rarely mention our best player. Dropped deep and made a congested midfield look wide open when he got forward. A joy to watch.

VdV, 6- Forgot he was on the pitch until that curling shot. Marshalled manfully by Felcher and unable to stamp any authority on proceedings.

Wilson, 6.5- Was surprised to see him on the team sheet, thought Jenas would have been the better choice. Hustled Carrick and Felcher nicely, but nowt our JJ couldn’t have done. Got into a decent shooting position a couple of times, exactly where you might have fancied the aforementioned to cause more problems.

Baler, 6- Is he injured or being told to rein it in? Not just in this game, but several recently, there have been very presentable opportunities to run into space beyond the full back and give an option to BAE or Mods to find him, and he’s just stood still. Still having a great season but needs to sharpen up to move to the next level.

Crouch, 6- Still trying to find his way out of Vidic’s pocket.  Another surprise selection from Harry. Didn’t he refuse to appeal Defoe’s sending off at Villa to ensure the ban wouldn’t have been in force for this game??? Given the quality of CB he was up against, won a fair amount of the aerial challenges, but delivery from the flanks and set pieces weren’t good enough to exploit what he was on the pitch for.

Subs. Were there any? Defoe for Palacios. Minimal impact.

60% possession and I can’t recall another side forcing Manure to play so negatively. Great effort but on the balance of play, 2 points dropped. A huge run of games coming up, and 6 out of 7 of them are away from home.

The planned protest over our proposed move to Stratford took place outside the main gates on Tottenham High Road. As a few people have pointed out, the volume of people resulted in the High Road being shut, ironically highlighting one of the main problems about getting to Tottenham and one of the main reasons for seeking a move away from the area. There was a bit more chanting going on at halftime which I took a video clip of. It’s on youtube, but then there are loads of them on there so get yerselves searching if you want to have a witness.