WORTHINGTON CUP 3RD RD
TUESDAY 31ST OCTOBER, 2000
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (0) BIRMINGHAM CITY 3 (3)

Spurs scorer:-
Anderton (pen), 60

Birmingham Scorers:-
Adebola, 14, 27
Burchill, 44

Referee:- Mr D. Pugh

Attendance:- 27, 096 (allegedly)

Teams:-
Spurs (4-4-2/3-5-2):- Sullivan; Carr, Perry, Vega, Thatcher; Anderton, Freund (sub Davies, 9, sub Young, 46), Sherwood (Capt.), Clemence; Korsten (sub Dominguez, 68), Ferdinand

Subs not used:- Walker; Doherty

Booked:- Perry

Birmingham (4-4-2):- Bennett; Gill, Purse, M. Johnson, Grainger; Eaden, Hughes, O'Connor, Lazarides (sub Robinson, 79); Adebola, Burchill (sub Ndlovu, 73)

Subs not used:- Poole; A. Johnson, Bass

Truly, the first half performance by Spurs was the worst I have seen. It was even worse than watching that Chelsea 6-1 thrashing of 3 years ago, when at least we played some good football, before succumbing to the strength and skill of the opposition. Tonight was about a team that played without confidence, inspiration, and that was barren of ideas. Watching Ramon Vega's clueless efforts was like sitting through all of Michael Myers' appearances in the Halloween series. Vega defended (or did not to be more accurate) like a schoolboy, and gave Dele Adebola the freedom of the lane, standing off him by at least five yards to allow his cracking second goal, and completely missing a header from the cross which gave the big Birmingham striker his first goal. Judging by the amount of space that Vega allowed his opponent, you would have thought that he believed he was facing "Leatherface" from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Whilst it would not be fair to lay all the blame at Vega's door, I personally think that it was a travesty that he was a) allowed to stay on the pitch after we went two down, and b) that Simon Davies was sacrificed at half time (what a blow to any confidence he may have) to allow the introduction of Luke Young to give us three at the back. I thought at first that Graham's intention was to preserve our three goal deficit, but his only attacking ploy is to use the full backs, and Carr and Thatcher became wing backs in the second half.

Spurs had an early warning when Lazarides and Burchill had a smart exchange leading to a Burchill shot on target, but weak, and straight at Sullivan. Spurs responded with the first of several chances for Ferdinand, who put his first (a free header) way over the target from a Thatcher cross. Then with only 5 minutes gone, Steffen Freund pulled up with what looked like a hamstring injury, and it took four minutes before Davies could be introduced. Immediately, young Simon was involved in a decent build up. Stephen Carr whipped round the back of Grainger to receive from Anderton, and send another cross for Ferdinand, whose header was saved by Bennett.

Unfortunately, Davies lost out to a strong challenge in the middle, and the ever industrious Lazarides was party to the build up which led to the first goal. A long cross from the left found Adebola in acres of space beyond the back post, with Vega nowhere to be seen. Adebola hit a strong shot across the keeper and into the net. At this stage, the home crowd were showing a lot of patience, and cheered their team, in the hope of getting back into the game. However, Birmingham threatened again, when Adebola had both Burchill and Lazarides to choose from on the edge of the box. He chose the ex-Hammer, and Lazarides shot wide to our relief.

Bennett again was down sharply to save another Ferdinand header from an Anderton cross, and then the fright night continued as Adebola gave Vega the slip on the right side, and hit a superb 25 yarder into the net. By now, Vega in particular was getting the boos, and the crowd started calling not for Graham's but for Sugar's head. Even Sullivan was looking shaky in goal, as he seemed to nearly punch a corner into his own goal. Adebola and Hughes combined well to get a cross to the back post, where Lazarides should have scored easily, but fired across the target completely.

After 34 minutes, Ferdinand was impeded on the edge of the area, and Chris Perry headed Anderton's free kick just over the bar. Even Stephen Carr was not exempt from mistakes, as his misplaced pass was collected by Martin Grainger who ran fully 50 yards to cross for Burchill to hit home just a minute before the break. It was all too easy for Brum, and Burchill should have increased their lead almost immediately, when he had the goal at his mercy, but headed across that target.

So came the change in tactics after the break, and Spurs (particularly Carr) did show some spirit. Sadly, it was all too late, and Spurs were never going to recover such a margin. Les Ferdinand chased a Clemence long ball, and got into the area, but then he and Sherwood seemed to confuse each other regarding who would take the shot on goal. As a result the attack fizzled out. Carr tested the keeper with a 25 yard low drive, and then he passed to Clemence who was brought down in the box, to enable Anderton to fire home the penalty with half an hour to go.

Carr was then at the end of another self-inspired attack as he headed over Clemence's returned ball from the left. Dominguez came on for the ineffective Korsten, and had a better show today than against Derby. The last chance for Spurs again followed some effort by Carr and Clemence on the right, but Ferdinand was unable to put enough power into Carr's cross, allowing Bennett to save low down.

George Graham was particularly sheepish when interviewed after the game, saying that he needs his best eleven, and that he will be determined to get things right on the training ground. Several hundred fans protested at the main gates, and the telephone lines to Capital Gold were crammed with eloquent but emotional complaints from the fans, who were agreed that this was the worst showing for thirty years. The bottom line is that this was the third ignominious cup exit in succession, and yet again we are looking at a long, hard, and depressing winter.

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