Eyewitness Report: Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Liverpool 1

Posted by Harinder on November 29, 2012, 03:13:59 pm

The short version, as per recommendation, is pffft. Oh and now go here and be the internet warrior you know you can be http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=300339.0

Ok. Now the longer one. No-one really wants to write an eye witness report about a defeat as it’s not as much fun. There isn’t that buoyant expectancy of the onward, upward charging cavalry of Liverpool’s army. Team and fans alike. Instead there is that despondent feeling of what could have been, almost was and had it been another day.

So this time around the journey for me to the match was a relatively short affair. Finish work, get to Liverpool Street station and take pick of trains running every 10 minutes or so to White Hart Lane. 1800 from Platform 1 it was then. Suffice to say the train was packed with Spurs fans. I could see few Liverpool fans tucked away in the corners of the carriages but otherwise it was Tottenham Hotspur’s Blue and White Army.

As it is more of a dark blue I wonder if they could be considered Smurfs after their week in Benidorm? 

The Norff Landan massive are a hilarious bunch. The conversations on the train over were around what Pav did last for them (Roman Pavlyuchenko), is Benny any good? (he was great in Crossroads) and Andre Villas Boas or the twiffic Harry Redknapp. I’ve had to translate given the cockney was strong in these ones and even myself, born and bred in West London, was struggling at times. I tried miserably yesterday to write what they were saying but given no-one had a clue why labour something so painful?

Cos its hilarious

“ahhh bwuv bwuv bwuv. Itsh shawll abbaart hayveebee innit blud”
“nah man nah man, woz ‘Arry for me shtar”
“geez datsh ma man right deere. Do jya reckon Freedel or Hugo in goal n dat”
“shawarma sheesh kebabsh and showaddywaddyaknow”

Ok I made the last one up but you catch my drift. The prematch meeting place of the Haringey Irish Club was a stones throw away from the station. A mix of Liverpool and Spurs fans there. But there was NO, I repeat NO food for the travelling Kop… I only saw a Spurs menu :-D And even then it looked like it was running late!



Just kidding. If you've ever been to a Punjabi family function in a community centre, this was just the same. Minus the catering and minus a dodgy DJ 

The last time I went to this fixture we won 3-2 after being behind 1-0. This time we went behind and stayed behind. The first half was painful. First 2 to 3 minutes and with Enrique bursting forward I actually thought we were going to do something. We did. We let them score. Bale down the wings, ball across and Lennon putting it in and 1-0 to Spurs. For some odd reason I took this moment to look around the away fans end and was then surprised at its similarity to the Shed End at Stamford Bridge. Blue seats, yellow barriers and even the same kind of shape and layout. Eyes back on the pitch and we look as if we may make it back in to the match. Few corners but nothing out of them and oh hang on, we’re in. Lloris is out, goal is open, Hendoooooooohhhhhhh NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Really deep sigh. I’m sure there was a Liverpool main site article about Henderson staying behind to practice shooting. Note to Brendan – put him back in detention!

And thank you Spurs. More misery. 2-0. I mean Reina sadly couldn’t have done much. What’s the point of the wall?

The rest of the half is a blur really. More rinse and repeat football by Liverpool. Pass around the back, try the wing and it breaks down and we invite the ball on to us and we don’t press for it back. Sigh again.

Half time musings in no particular order

 - I’m at the match standing next to 2 Rawk mods. If they had ban hammers for our fans would they use Thor’s hammer on the fellas with the 2 phones in front of them? One of them wearing a beauty from the Liverpool FC Official Store. One of those spangly Zip hoodies you'd buy someone you purposely want to laugh at

- Lents is a seriously passionate fan. It’s infectious

- 2 lads behind me don’t like Henderson. I point he actually passes and moves which is more than can be said for some who just bypass moving

- Same 2 lads don’t like Gerrard’s corners. It’s hard to right now

- Stevie. The midfield engine V8 humming 500bhp type. Petrol not included today. Maybe not tomorrow either

- Is the Brendan Rodgers playing belief an experiment? Is it like school where you needed a hypothesis, method, control and conclusions? Is it bucket chemistry? Do our players think its Astrophysics?

- Can Jose get any bigger? Can he start training Raheem?

Second Half. Well we start brightly but cannot convert attacking intent into a goal. Some of our ball control and passing does leave a bit to desire. I’m sure more can be made of it but not me. I just see it as a sad indictment of how we were overall. We played at times with promise and then just let ourselves down. A couple of times we can see the major difference. Ball coming towards our player and Spurs already moving into nick it back. Vice versa is not the same. On comes Jonjo and hello yellow card? :-( No. Dowd keeps card in pocket. We’re playing better but just can’t buy a goal.

But we got an own goal courtesy of Gareth “Cheeeeeet” Bale. 2-1. Game on. Jonjo cross in, shot on goal, ping, pong, Bale, Goal

One day you just know Jose Enrique is going to score a 30 yard screamer. Just that day wasn’t this one. You do believe it though as his efforts deserve it

The remainder of the 20 minutes plays out as expected. A few good balls put through and few more episodes of Bad Control and this soap opera of a match ended.

Hats off to Phil Dowd though. He’s put in a blinding effort in his audition to play a panto villain. He must enjoy being hated

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