A familiar story here, we play well, make a couple of mistakes and gift the opposition the game.
A nice sunny day, the crowd up for it, a great atmosphere for the first home game of the season. Two changes from the Wolves game with Spector coming in for the injured Illunga and Stanislas replacing the (once again) injured Dyer. Both of the changes illustrated the dangerous lack of depth we have in our squad.
Spurs looked dangerous for the opening ten minutes, with a number of attacking options, with Lennon continuing to look dangerous. As the first half progressed Cole got more and more into the game, using his stength to good effect against King and Bassong.
The chances came with Parker hitting a low effort that Cudicini did his best to make a meal of, and Cole coming on to a great ball from Spector and should have done better. Spurs had their chances too, with Huddlestone testing Green, and King hitting the bar with a header.
Just before the half-time break we had a great chance when Stanislas skinned Corluka on the left and played the ball in for Cole, but the big striker could not guide the ball in.
The second half was only four minutes old when Carlton Cole smashed in a wonder goal. He received the ball some 25 yards out from goal, flicked it up and hammered the ball past Cudicini. Upton Park went wild, for about five minutes. Cole turned villian, and for some strange reason decided to play in Mini Judas for the munchkin to smash in the equaliser. What were you doing Carlton?
The Spurs goal knocked the stuffing out of us a bit, but chances continued at both ends. Modric could have scored, and soon after it looked as though Jimenez should have won a penalty. When the third goal came it was Spurs who got it, Lennon beating Spector and hitting a decent shot past Green. Why Spector was played at left-back instead of Daprela I do not know, why sign a back-up left back and then not play him when the first choice is injured?
Hines and Nouble were thrown on at the end of the game, but had little chance to make any impact. Again, the fact that we had to throw on a couple of kids shows the lack of depth in our squad.
A good performance against a good Spurs team, but mistakes cost us dear. We need two more strikers in sharpish….
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